Troubled water under the bridge: Screening of River Mur water reveals dominance of CTX-M harboring Escherichia coli and for the first time an environmental VIM-1 producer in Austria

Abstract

Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) in the aquatic environment are reported from all over the world and their presence in the environment has become quite common. The current most prominent example is the presence of beta-lactamases harboring Enterobacteriaceae. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and diversity (on the genetic and phenotypic levels) of extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) and carbapenemases harboring Enterobacteriaceae from the River Mur in the center of Graz, Austria's second largest city. Thus over a period of four months water samples were taken, filtrated and screened for these bacteria. All samples revealed ESBL harboring Enterobacteriaceae, of which all with only one exception were Escherichia coli. Dominant ESBL gene family was CTX-M, represented by subgroups CTX-M-1 group, CTX-M-2 group and CTX-M-9 group. Surprisingly co-resistances to non-beta-lactam antibiotics were low, only resistance to trimethoprim was detected in 50% of all (70) isolates. One Klebsiella oxytoca with GES-1 was isolated. To date, GES ESBL has never been reported from Austria before and only rarely from other European countries. Screening for carbapenemase harboring Enterobacteriaceae revealed one Enterobacter cloacae with the gene for VIM-1. Members sharing the same multi-locus-sequence-type (MLST) as well as members of the same rep PCR clusters occurred at different sampling time points. ESBL-harboring Enterobacteriaceae are common in Austrian river water, is dominated by Escherichia coli and CTX-M enzymes. Furthermore, some of the isolates could be linked to different origins.

Keywords: ESBL; GES; Klebsiella oxytoca; River; VIM; Water.