Dogs Should Be Included in Surveillance Programs for Vancomycin-

Enterococci are commensal bacteria of the intestinal micro-biota in humans and animals. Multidrug-resistant enterococci are among the most important pathogens responsible for nos-ocomial infections in humans (8). During the last decade van-comycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as a worldwide health problem, i.e., as reservoirs of genes coding for antimicrobial resistance and as possessors of the ability to spread these resistance genes to other bacterial species (17). There are numerous reports on the presence of VRE in farm animals (2, 3). Some epidemiological studies suggest that an-imals carrying VRE in their gastrointestinal tract could be the source of VRE infections of humans (19). These VRE of animal origin can colonize humans, being able then to transfer their resistance genes to other intestinal bacteria of humans (3, 14). However, there are only a limited number of studies deal