Chloramphenicol resistance in Staphylococcus intermedius from a single veterinary centre: evidence for plasmid and chromosomal location of the resistance genes

A total of seven Staphylococcus intermedius cultures isolated from cases of canine pyoderma were investigated for the genetic basis of chloramphenicol resistance (Cm r). All of these S. intermedius isolates mediated Cm r via the expression of the Cm-inactivating enzyme chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT); the respective cat genes were found to be located on small multicopy plasmids of 3.1 to 4.1 kb in four of the seven cultures. The four Cm r plasmids, designated pSCS20–23, differed upon restriction endonuclease mapping. Hybridization experiments identified all of them to belong to the pC221-family of staphylococcal Cm r plasmids. The expression of all four plasmid-encoded cat genes was inducible with chloramphenicol. The remaining three S. intermedius isolates also harboured an inducible cat gene of the pC221-type which, however, was found to be located in the chromosomal DNA. These differences in the subcellular localisation and consequently in the number of cat gene copies per S. intermedius cell had no influence on the MIC values of Cm exhibited by the respective S. intermedius isolates.