Emergence of Klebsiella pneumoniae subspecies pneumoniae as a cause of septicaemia in pigs in England

PLoS One. 2018 Feb 22;13(2):e0191958. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191958. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Between 2011 and 2014 outbreaks of septicaemia due to Klebsiella pneumoniae subspecies pneumoniae (Kpp) were diagnosed on thirteen English pig farms. The most consistent features were rapid deaths of pigs from ten-days-old to weaning, seasonal occurrence (May to September), affected farms being outdoor breeding herds and the location of all but one of the outbreaks in the East Anglia region in Eastern England. Molecular characterisation of the outbreak Kpp isolates showed that by multilocus sequencing all were sequence type 25 (ST25) of K2 capsular type with a combination of a 4.3kb plasmid (pKPMC25), three phage sequences and the rmpA virulence gene. No archived Kpp isolates of porcine origin pre-dating 2011 were identified as ST25. In 2013 there was the first detection of an outbreak Kpp isolate showing antimicrobial resistance to six antibiotics. Human infection with Kpp ST25 has not been reported in the UK.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial
  • Klebsiella Infections / microbiology
  • Klebsiella Infections / veterinary*
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / drug effects
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / genetics
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / pathogenicity
  • Sepsis / microbiology
  • Sepsis / veterinary*
  • Swine
  • Swine Diseases / microbiology*
  • Virulence

Grants and funding

The APHA laboratory and staff costs of this work were funded by Defra through the “Scanning surveillance for Pig Diseases in England and Wales” (ED1200), “Monitoring of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals and their environment” (FZ2200) and the Swine Influenza Surveillance (SV3041) projects. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or preparation of the manuscript.