Development and validation of ClonalTracker, a tool that assesses for a pair of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) genomes whether they are related through clonal spread or through horizontal transfer, by comparing the van operon, its carrying transposon, and whole-genome similarity. The method was validated on two previously analyzed public VRE datasets and applied to a third dataset of 323 vanB VRE isolates, in which clonal expansion was found to be the dominant dissemination mode. The tool is available at clonaltracker.nl.
ClonalTracker: development and validation of a method to elucidate dissemination patterns between VRE isolates
Study: ClonalTracker: development and validation of a method to elucidate dissemination patterns between VRE isolates
VRE-crossword, horizontal or vertical? Transmission of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in Dutch hospitals