Our pre-print paper - Whole-Genome Sequencing Identified Co-Circulating VIM-Producing Serratia bockelmannii and Serratia Sarumanii in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Cluster Investigation - has been published in Preprints.org.

In this paper, we investigated a cluster of VIM-producing Serratia spp. in the Neonatal Unit of Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia, Italy, using epidemiological surveillance, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, environmental sampling, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS).

WGS showed that the ten isolates studied, initially identified as S. marcescens by routine diagnostic methods, belonged to two species within the S. marcescens complex: seven Serratia bockelmannii ST388 isolates and three ST382-like Serratia sarumanii isolates. All VIM-producing Serratia spp. isolates carried blaVIM-1 and blaSHV-12 and showed multidrug-resistant phenotypes. blaVIM-1 was also detected in Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii, and Pseudomonas putida isolates from the same ward. A shared IncA-ST12 replicon suggested possible horizontal dissemination of a related mobile resistance element. Environmental and healthcare-worker screening did not detect Serratia. These findings highlight the value of WGS for distinguishing clonal transmission from dissemination of mobile resistance determinants during complex healthcare-associated outbreaks.

Check it out at Preprints.org [link]