Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51843 / 66949
mikrobiologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de
Background and objectives:
For the international JPIAMR project ‘Genomic approach to transmission and compartmentalization of extended-spectrum cephalosporin resistance in Enterobacteriaceaefrom animals and humans’, short TransComp-ESC-R, Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coliisolates, originating from the German national resistance monitoring program GERM-Vet [1], were investigated for theirgenomic resistance characteristics.
Materials and methods:
A total of 180 ESBL-producing E. coliisolates were selected regarding the year of isolation (2008-2016) and host animal species to represent a comparable distribution towards the isolate distribution of the collaborating countries in the TransComp-ESC-Rstudy. The selection included 128 isolates from bovine, 40 from porcine, and 12 from avian sources.The 2x 300 bp paired-end sequencing was performed on the Illumina MiSeq (Illumina Inc., San Diego,USA) platform. Sequence types (STs) and resistance genes were identified with ARIBA using the ResFinder database [2, 3].
Results:
All 180 isolates harbored at least one beta lactamase-gene (median = 2), with the ESBL gene blaCTX-M-1being most common (n=120, 66.7%), followed by the broad-spectrum beta-lactamase gene blaTEM-1(n=78, 43.3%). A combination of both genes was detected in 51 isolates. Further ESBL genes identified were:blaCTX-M-14, blaCTX-M-15, blaTEM-187, blaSHV-12(2.8%), and in only three orless isolates: blaCTX-M-2, blaCTX-M-3, blaCTX-M-61, blaCTX-M-90, blaTEM-52, and blaTEM-124.The beta-lactamase genes blaOXA-1, blaOXA-320, blaTEM-57, blaTEM-206and some inhibitor-resistant TEM (IRT) beta-lactamases: blaTEM-30, blaTEM-83, and blaTEM-84 were also detected. All isolates harbored additional resistance genes to non-beta-lactam antibiotics and 174/180 (97.2%) were multidrug-resistant [with additional resistances to aminoglycoside(s), trimethoprim, colistin, chloramphenicol, fosfomycin, sulfonamide(s), streptomycin, and/or tetracycline(s)]. At least one sulfonamide resistance gene was present in 156/180 (86.6%) isolates, while the other resistance genes were detected less frequently. The isolates were assigned to 61 different STs (including threenovel STs) with ST10 as the most prominent one (24/180, 13.3%). The typical ESBL-carrying sequence types ST131 (n=1), ST167 (n=12), ST224 (n=2), ST410 (n=5) and ST617 (n=2) were represented among the isolates.
Conclusions:
Almost all ESBL-producing E. coliisolates showed multidrug-resistance. This may enable the co-selection of ESBL genes when located on the same mobile genetic element as the other resistance genes, and may influence the transmission capacity or conversely the compartmentalization of suchisolates.