subtilis, suggests that the severity of disease is linked with the bacterial number involved in infection. The severity also extended in the fifth instar larvae, where many failed to metamorphose and never reached the adult stage. Thus, the study suggests that transmission of pathogens is through the parents and after a latent period of incubation pathogen reaches to a lethal number to cause tissue damage in the host and resultant death is inevitable. Study further suggests that the transmission

of pathogenic bacterium occurs transovarially and has been reported for the first time in the silkworm, B. mori. All authors have none to declare. “
“Acinetobacter species are aerobic Gram-negative bacilli that have emerged as important opportunistic pathogens, especially among critically ill patients. 1 Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor Clinical manifestations of Acinetobacter INK1197 mw infections includes hospital acquired pneumonia, blood stream infection, urinary tract infection, meningitis and wound infection. 2 Because of frequent resistance to the aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones, and third-generation cephalosporin, carbapenem are widely used for managing acinetobacter infections. 2 The emergence of carbapenem

resistance in Acinetobacter spp is a significant public health concern because of limited option of antibiotic treatment. 3 Carbapenemases found in Acinetobacter may belong to class B (Metallo enzymes MBL: IMP, VIM, SIM and NDM-1) or to class D (OXA enzymes), the latter being most commonly found worldwide. 4 The OXA carbapenemases of Acinetobacter are divided into four phylogenetic subgroups: OXA-23-like; OXA-24-like; OXA-51-like and OXA-58. 4 There is recent emergence of MBL NDM-1 in different enterobacterial species 5 and also in Acinetobacter especially much in India 6 has been reported. Strains of Acinetobacter were isolated from inpatients of SRM hospital from different samples i.e. sputum, tracheal aspirate, wound swab, blood, urine etc. All isolates met the criteria of being lactose nonfermenting, glucose non-acidifier, Gram-negative bacilli, catalase positive, oxidase negative and citrate positive.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed preliminarily by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method using routine drugs including imipenem as per CLSI guidelines. Strains which showed resistance to imipenem by disk diffusion methods were further tested by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) by agar dilution method. The antimicrobial concentration ranges tested were 0.03–128 μg/ml for imipenem. Genomic DNA extraction was done by using (Pure Fast Bacterial genomic DNA purification kit) from all strains of Acinetobacter which showed resistance to imipenem by both disk diffusion and agar dilution method. OXA-23, OXA-58 7 and 8 and NDM-1 9 carbapenemases-encoding genes were used as targets for multiplex PCR assay.