Isolation of a blaNDM-1-positive strain in Israel predating the earliest observations from India. Acinetobacter

blaNDM, the most prevalent carbapenemase among carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, is thought to have emerged in India, as its initial detection in 2008 was linked to this country, and subsequent retrospective surveys had so far established the earliest blaNDM-positive strains to be isolated in India in 2005. Molecular dating and analyses suggest blaNDM emerged within Acinetobacter species decades prior to 2005 on a Tn125 transposon.Despite early reports of elevated rates of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter species in Israel starting in the 1990's, limited molecular data are available from this location. We searched for blaNDM among Acinetobacter species isolated in Israel between 2001 and 2006. One A. junii strain, Ajun-H1-3, isolated in January 2004, carried blaNDM-1 within a Tn125 transposon on a 49 kb plasmid, pNDM-Ajun-H1-3, making Ajun-H1-3 the earliest NDM-positive isolate observed to date. The pNDM-Ajun-H1-3 plasmid matched numerous BJ01-like NDM-positive plasmids identified from 2005 onwards in Acinetobacter species as well as Enterobacterales. These results support the need for further retrospective work on global strain archives to shed light on the conditions favoring the emergence as well as subsequent evolution and spread of blaNDM.