Genetic structure, antimicrobial resistance and frequency of human associated Escherichia coli sequence types among faecal isolates from healthy dogs and cats living in Canberra, Australia

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 4;14(3):e0212867. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212867. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) cause clinical infections in humans. Understanding the evolution and dissemination of ExPEC strains via potential reservoirs is important due to associated morbidity, health care costs and mortality. To further understanding this survey has examined isolates recovered from the faeces of 221 healthy dogs and 427 healthy cats. The distribution of phylogroups varied with host species, and depended on whether the animal was living in a shelter or a home. The human associated STs 69, 73, 95, 131 and 127 were prevalent, with 30.5% of cat isolates and 10.3% of dog isolates representing these ExPEC sequence types. Resistance to the antibiotics ampicillin and tetracycline was common, but resistance to other antimicrobials was negligible.

MeSH terms

  • Ampicillin / pharmacology
  • Animals
  • Australia
  • Cats / microbiology*
  • Disease Reservoirs / microbiology*
  • Dogs / microbiology*
  • Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial
  • Escherichia coli Infections / microbiology
  • Escherichia coli Infections / transmission
  • Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli / isolation & purification
  • Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli / physiology*
  • Feces / microbiology*
  • Female
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Phylogeny
  • Tetracycline / pharmacology
  • Zoonoses / microbiology
  • Zoonoses / transmission

Substances

  • Ampicillin
  • Tetracycline

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.