Clonal dissemination of Klebsiella pneumoniae ST258 harbouring KPC-2 in Argentina

Fil: Gomez, Sonia A. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Pasteran, Fernando. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Faccone, Diego. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Tijet, Nathalie. Public Health Laboratories. Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion; Canada.Fil: Rapoport, Melina J. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Lucero, Celeste. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Lastovetska, O. Public Health Laboratories. Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion; Canada.Fil: Albornoz, Ezequiel. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Galas, Marcelo F. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Melano, Roberto. Public Health Laboratories. Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion; Canada.Fil: Corso, Alejandra. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.Fil: Petroni, Alejandro. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Servicio Antimicrobianos; Argentina.The present work describes the abrupt emergence of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) and characterizes the first 79 KPC-producing enterobacteria from Argentina (isolated from 2006 to 2010). The emergence of bla(KPC-2) was characterized by two patterns of dispersion: the first was the sporadic occurrence in diverse enterobacteria from distant geographical regions, harbouring plasmids of different incompatibility groups and bla(KPC-2) in an unusual genetic environment flanked by ISKpn8-Δbla(TEM-1) and ISKpn6-like. bla(KPC-2) was associated with IncL/M transferable plasmids; the second was the abrupt clonal spread of K. pneumoniae ST258 harbouring bla(KPC-2) in Tn4401a