LAUSR

Enterococcus faecium is a relevant and opportunistic human pathogen that has a broad host range including humans, farm animals, pets, and wildlife. Specialized sub-populations have globally evolved towards a powerful and convergent adaption to the healthcare environment, by acquiring a cocktail of key antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes enabling them to thrive in the disturbed microbiota of hospitalized patients. These populations can also be found in different community reservoirs but the relevance of their dispersal in non-human hosts is greatly unknown and is here discussed. This review provides a brief historical overview of what we have been considering E. faecium high-risk clones worldwide alongside the advances in strain typing technologies that have revolutionized our understanding of the genetic evolution of this species over the last three decades.