Except for a few isolates that did not carry lytA, lytC, hysA and strH (carriage: 99.2%, 99.2%, 98.4% and 99.2%, respectively), all isolates carried protein vaccine candidate encoding genes, including pce, ply, psaA, piaA, piuA, phtE, nanA, hysA, tuf, pepO, danJ, papP, prtA, pvaA, gndA, clpP, ppmA, eng, pcsB, stkP, potD, pgdA, strH, bgaA and pppA, the majority of which were protective either alone or in combination against pneumococcal infections. Here, ENG is linked to pneumococcal infection.