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Article critique

• most of the references were research articles
• most of the references were from the 1990s to early 2000s
• three of the sections were smaller than the others: historical, genome structure, small RNA
• high focus on virulence and survival on Enterococcus faecalis
• link to sources appear to be working
• not many conflicting viewpoints
• not many viewpoints

Article draft

I could add in more historical information on Enterococcus faecalis such as: who discovered it; since it was know by another name, how long has the species been know to exist. There could be information on whether or not this species is opportunistic or constantly tries to infect hosts. How the species grows or infects hosts could be added.

Possible sources I have found:

Huycke, M. M., Sahm, D. F., & Gilmore, M. S. (1998). Multiple-Drug Resistant Enterococci: The Nature of the Problem and an Agenda for the Future. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 4(2), 239-249. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid0402.980211. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/4/2/98-0211_article

Poulsen, L., Bisgaard, M., Son, N., Trung, N., An, H., & Dalsgaard, A. (2012). Enterococcus faecalis Clones in Poultry and in Humans with Urinary Tract Infections, Vietnam. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 18(7), 1096-1100. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1807.111754. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/7/11-1754_article

Lebreton F, Willems RJL, Gilmore MS. Enterococcus Diversity, Origins in Nature, and Gut Colonization. 2014 Feb 2. In: Gilmore MS, Clewell DB, Ike Y, et al., editors. Enterococci: From Commensals to Leading Causes of Drug Resistant Infection [Internet]. Boston: Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; 2014-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK190427/

Public health agency of Canada; ENTEROCOCCUS FAECALIS; PATHOGEN SAFETY DATA SHEET - INFECTIOUS SUBSTANCES http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab-bio/res/psds-ftss/enterococcus-eng.php

The following sentences will be finalized after editing and review before being transferred to appropriate sections in the final article already established.

Introduction (possible additions here):

The majority of known cases of enterococcal infections are from E. faecalis.

E. faecalis can be found naturally in the human micro-flora of the gastrointestinal tracts.

E. faecalis has been found in human feces and can infect other species but it is mostly found in mammals.

Physiology (possible additions here):

Pathogenesis (possible additions here):

Much is still unknown on how E. faecalis infects and grows within hosts, but there is ongoing research into these areas.

E. faecalis has been found in insects, reptiles, birds, humans and mammals. Because of this wide variety of hosts, it has been suggested that a common ancestor of these groups had E. faecalis as a member of the gastrointestinal tracts microbiome.

As an opportunistic pathogen, E. faecalis infects open exposed areas of a host such as surgical wounds, urinary tract or the bloodstream if a blood vessel is open.

E. faecalis infects certain animals at different ages. For example: initially infects chickens at an early age before being replaced by other Enterococcus species; a similar occurrence for prenuminant calves for cattle.

E. faecalis found in hospital insects could be a source of contamination and risk to hospital patients.

Deaths in E. faecalis cases are hard to pinpoint exact source because of other morbid illnesses found in the patients.

Resistance to a number of environmental conditions may explain why E. faecalis is found in certain fermented food products. E. faecalis was used in fermented products because of its ability to produce bacteriocins.

Antibacterial resistance (possible additions here):

Aside from chromosomal genes as a source for resistance to antibiotics, E. faecalis is also cable to exchange resistance-encoding genes using conjugative transposons and plasmids.

Antibiotic resistant strains found in hospitals have an increased chance of colonization in potential hosts. Use of broad spectrum antibiotic therapy is not recommended as a treatment because that provides an opportunity for increased resistance to develop.

E. faecalis antibiotic resistant strains in poultry and pigs most likely due to antibiotic treatments of other illnesses.

Survival and virulence factors (possible additions here):

Historical (possible additions here):

1899, Thiercelin in France was studying organisms in the intestines. Called the organism he found Enterocoque as focus on the morphology and origin of the organism in the intestines. From Enterocoque, the term eterococcus was made.

1899, MacCallum and Hastings described a similar organism to Thiercelin's they examined from an endocarditis victim. They called it Micrococcus zymogenes but it has now been identified as Enterococcus faecalis.

1906, Streptococcus faecalis was the name given by Andrewes and Horder when they were studying an organism in clotted milk.

1934, J.M. Sherman's placed the now known genus Enterococci as group D streptococci.

1984, Schleifer and Kilpper-Balz classified Streptococcus faecalis and Streptococcus faecium as Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in their own genus.

2012, an experiment done in Vietnam by Poulsen and partners studied isolates of E. faecalis gathered from poultry and urine in patients. What they discovered some of the isolates were very similar in both the human and poultry hosts. However they could not determine if the E. faecalis was infecting between hosts or if these isolates were from the same environment reservoir affecting all hosts in the area. Transmission between different species hosts still needs to be further investigated.