Results: Sixty consecutive CRE samples were isolated from 52 hospital inpatients and/or outpatients from
November 2013 to August 2014. Genotyping of microbial isolates was done by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)
and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), carbapenemases were identified by PCR and sequencing. Carbapenem
resistance gene transfer was performed by filter mating, plasmids from parental and transconjugant strains were
assigned to incompatibility groups by PCR-based replicon typing. Molecular characterization of CRE isolates assigned
25 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to PFGE types A1-A5 and sequencing type (ST) 101, 17 K. pneumoniae isolates to PFGE
type A and ST1789 (a single locus variant of ST101), 7 K. pneumoniae isolates to PFGE types B or C and ST512,
2 K. pneumoniae isolates to PFGE type D and ST405, and 5 Escherichia coli isolates to PFGE type a and ST131.
All K. pneumoniae ST101 and ST1789 isolates were extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producers and
carried blaCTX-M-1 group gene; 4 K. pneumoniae ST101 isolates were resistant to colistin. Molecular analysis of
beta-lactamase genes identified blaKPC-2 and blaCTX-M-group 1 into conjugative plasmid/s assigned to IncFII incompatibility
group in ST101 and ST1789 K. pneumoniae isolates, blaKPC-3 into conjugative plasmid/s assigned to IncF incompatibility
group in ST512 and ST405 K. pneumoniae isolates, blaVIM-1 into conjugative plasmid/s assigned to IncN incompatibility
group in ST131 E. coli isolates.