High prevalence of closely-related Acinetobacter baumannii in pets according to a multicentre study in veterinary clinics, Reunion Island

Our objective was to study the carriage of Acinetobacter baumannii (AB) in pets in Reunion Island (RI), a French territory in Indian Ocean. Overall, 138 pets were sampled (rectum, mouth, wounds if applicable) in 9 veterinary clinics (VC). The prevalence of AB carriage was 6.5% (95%CI; 2.4, 10.6) and 9 carriers were identified from 4 VC. Hospitalization in a VC and antimicrobial treatment administered within the 15 preceding days were significantly associated with AB carriage (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively). Despite the VC in which animals have been sampled were located all around RI, most isolates (8/9) were closely-related (>90% similarity by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis). Additional studies are needed to improve the understanding about interactions between the different reservoirs of AB in RI

Developing a tool to assess trainees during crisis management training for major risks

International audienceOften based on simulation exercises, crisis management training helps prepare decision-makers to manage crises better. However, this training has definite limits in terms of trainee assessment and the feed-back given during the debriefing phase. This paper presents a method for better organising the assessment of trainees involved in a real time crisis management training exercises and for giving them feedback during the debriefing phase. The approach presented is based on creating a typology of training objectives in order to or-ganise the assessment. The assessment includes expected outcomes techniques as well as the human and or-ganisational factors that can be observed within a group. The assessment tools developed were then experi-mented within crisis management exercises completed with trainees. Beyond the basic results, these tools helped redefine the basic roles played by observers and trainers during training exercises

Molecular Analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii Strains Isolated in Lebanon Using Four Different Typing Methods

International audienceThis study analyzed 42 Acinetobacter baumannii strains collected between 2009–2012 from different hospitals in Beyrouth and North Lebanon to better understand the epidemiology and carbapenem resistance mechanisms in our collection and to compare the robustness of pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) and blaOXA-51 sequence-based typing (SBT). Among 31 carbapenem resistant strains, we have detected three carbapenem resistance genes: 28 carried the blaOXA-23 gene, 1 the blaOXA-24 gene and 2 strains the blaOXA-58 gene. This is the first detection of blaOXA-23 and blaOXA-24 in Lebanon. PFGE identified 11 types and was the most discriminating technique followed by rep-PCR (9 types), blaOXA-51 SBT (8 types) and MLST (7 types). The PFGE type A'/ST2 was the dominant genotype in our collection present in Beyrouth and North Lebanon. The clustering agreement between all techniques was measured by adjust Wallace coefficient. An overall agreement has been demonstrated. High values of adjust Wallace coefficient were found with followed combinations: PFGE to predict MLST types = 100%, PFGE to predict blaOXA-51 SBT = 100%, blaOXA-51 SBT to predict MLST = 100%, MLST to predict blaOXA-51 SBT = 84.7%, rep-PCR to predict MLST = 81.5%, PFGE to predict rep-PCR = 69% and rep-PCR to predict blaOXA-51 SBT = 67.2%. PFGE and MLST are gold standard methods for outbreaks investigation and population structure studies respectively. Otherwise, these two techniques are technically, time and cost demanding. We recommend the use of blaOXA-51 SBT as first typing method to screen isolates and assign them to their corresponding clonal lineages. Repetitive sequence-based PCR is a rapid tool to access outbreaks but careful interpretation of results must be always performed.</p