Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a frequent disease of humans and pets and has extra-intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains as one of the main etiologic agent. ExPEC are characterized by specific virulence factors and are related to a heterogeneous group of human and animal disorders, besides to be a relevant participant in the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance. The purpose of this study was to characterize E. coli strains isolated from UTI of dogs and cats for serotypes, virulence markers, phylogenetic groups and sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs. E. coli was identified as the etiologic agent of UTI in urine samples of 43 pets (7 cats and 36 dogs). Serogroups O2, O4 and O6 corresponded to more than one third of the isolates, being 62% of the total strains classified as B2, 18% as D, 16% as B1 and 4% as A. The iucD (22%), fyuA (80%), traT (51%) and cvaC (20%) genes were distributed among the four phylogenetic groups, whereas the papC/papEF (47%) and malX (67%) genes were found only in groups B2 and D. There were a high number of resistant strains, with 76% of the strains belonging to groups A, B1 and D characterized as multidrug resistant (MDR), whereas only 21% had this phenotype in the group B2. The ExPEC strains isolated in this study displayed pathotypic and phylogenetic similarities with human isolates and high percentages of drug resistance. The finding of MDR ExPEC strains suggests implications for animal and public health and deserves more investigations.
Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Cats; Dogs; Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC); Phylogenetic groups; Urinary tract infections (UTI); Virulence factors.
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