Antimicrobial Resistance, Genetic Diversity and Multilocus Sequence Typing of Escherichia coli from Humans, Retail Chicken and Ground Beef in Egypt
Open Access
- 8 May 2020
- Vol. 9 (5), 357
- https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9050357
Abstract
Contamination of retail foods with foodborne pathogens, particularly the antimicrobial resistant ones, poses a persistent threat to human health. There is a dearth of information about the overlapping Escherichia coli (E. coli) lineages circulating among retail foods and humans in Egypt. This study aimed to determine the clonal diversity of 120 E. coli isolates from diarrheic patients (n = 32), retail chicken carcasses (n = 61) and ground beef (n = 27) from Mansoura, Egypt using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Simpson’s index of diversity was calculated to compare the results of both typing methods. Antimicrobial resistance phenotypes, genotypes and phylogrouping of the isolates were also determined. Higher frequencies of antimicrobial resistance were found among chicken isolates compared to beef and human isolates; regardless of isolate source, the predominant antimicrobial resistances were found against ampicillin (87/120, 72.5%), tetracycline and sulfisoxazole (82/120, 68.3%, each), and streptomycin (79/120, 65.8%). None of the isolates displayed resistance to meropenem. The prevalent genes detected were tetA (64.2%), blaTEM (62.5%), sul1 (56.7%), floR (53.3%), sul2 (50%), strB (48.3%) and strA (47.5%) corresponding with resistance phenotypes. Alarmingly, blaCTX was detected in 63.9% (39/61) of chicken isolates. The majority of E. coli isolates from humans (90.6%), beef (81.5%) and chicken (70.5%) belonged to commensal phylogroups (A, B1, C). Using PFGE analysis, 16 out of 24 clusters (66.7%) contained isolates from different sources at a similarity level ≥75%. MLST results assigned E. coli isolates into 25, 19 and 13 sequence types (STs) from chicken, human and beef isolates, respectively. Six shared STs were identified including ST1011, ST156, ST48, ST224 (chicken and beef), ST10 (human and chicken) and ST226 (human and beef). Simpson’s index of diversity was higher for MLST (0.98) than PFGE (0.94). In conclusion, the existence of common genetic determinants among isolates from retail foods and humans in Egypt as well as the circulation of shared STs indicates a possible epidemiological link with potential zoonotic hazards.Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (6040-32000-009-00D)
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Genetic mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance identified in Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, and Enteroccocus spp. isolated from U.S. food animalsFrontiers in Microbiology, 2013
- The Clermont Escherichia coli phylo‐typing method revisited: improvement of specificity and detection of new phylo‐groupsEnvironmental Microbiology Reports, 2012
- Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase–Producing Escherichia coli From Retail Chicken Meat and Humans: Comparison of Strains, Plasmids, Resistance Genes, and Virulence FactorsClinical Infectious Diseases, 2012
- Infection strategies of enteric pathogenic Escherichia coliGut Microbes, 2012
- CTX-M-15-Producing Escherichia coli Clinical Isolates in Cairo (Egypt), Including Isolates of Clonal Complex ST10 and Clones ST131, ST73, and ST405 in Both Community and Hospital SettingsMicrobial Drug Resistance, 2011
- Multilocus Sequence Typing Compared to Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis for Molecular Typing of Pseudomonas aeruginosaJournal of Clinical Microbiology, 2007
- Identification of Unconventional Intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli Isolates Expressing Intermediate Virulence Factor Profiles by Using a Novel Single-Step Multiplex PCRApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2007
- Sex and virulence in Escherichia coli: an evolutionary perspectiveMolecular Microbiology, 2006
- CorrgramsThe American Statistician, 2002
- Measurement of DiversityNature, 1949