Companion Animals as Potential Reservoirs of Antibiotic Resistant Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in Shandong, China

Lulu Cui; Xiaonan Zhao; Ruibo Li; Yu Han; Guijuan Hao; Guisheng Wang; Shuhong Sun

doi:10.3390/antibiotics11060828

Companion Animals as Potential Reservoirs of Antibiotic Resistant Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in Shandong, China

Antibiotics (Basel). 2022 Jun 20;11(6):828. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics11060828.

Authors

Lulu Cui¹, Xiaonan Zhao², Ruibo Li¹, Yu Han¹, Guijuan Hao¹, Guisheng Wang³, Shuhong Sun¹

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an 271018, China.
² Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan 250100, China.
³ Shandong Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, Jinan 250100, China.

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance genes of Escherichia coli (E. coli) from companion animals were still poorly understood. Here, we investigated the extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) resistance genes of E. coli from companion animals in Shandong, China. A total of 79 isolates (80.6%) were recovered from 98 healthy or diarrheal companion animals in 2021, among which ESBLs-producing isolates accounted for 43.0% (34/79), and more than half of ESBL E. coli (ESBL-EC) strains (n = 19) were isolated from healthy companion animals. Diarrheagenic E. coli isolates (45.6%, n = 36) were represented by enterotoxigenic (ETEC) (32.9%), enteropathogenic (EPEC) (10.1%) and enteroinvasive (EIEC) (2.6%), 20 isolates of which were from healthy pets. Among tested antibiotics, resistance to tetracycline (64.6%) was the most commonly observed, followed by doxycycline (59.5%) and ampicillin (53.2%). Notably, all isolates were susceptible to meropenem. The multidrug-resistant (MDR) rate was 49.4%, 20 isolates of which were ESBLs producers; moreover, 23.4%, 16.4% of ESBL-EC strains were resistant to 5 or more, 7 or more antibiotics, respectively. Among the 5 β-lactamase resistance genes, the most frequent gene was bla_CTX-M (60.76%), followed by bla_SHV (40.51%). The plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) gene aac(6')-Ib-cr was detected in 35 isolates. Additionally, ESBL-associated genes (i.e., bla_CTX-M, bla_SHV) were found in 76.5% ESBL-EC strains, with six isolates carrying bla_CTX-M and bla_SHV. The marker gene of high-pathogenicity island gene irp2 (encoding iron capture systems) was the most frequency virulence gene. Our results showed that ESBL-EC were widespread in healthy or diarrhea companion animals, especially healthy pets, which may be a potential reservoir of antibiotic resistance, therefore, enhancing a risk to public and animal health.

Keywords: ESBLs; Escherichia coli; antimicrobial resistance; companion animals; diarrheagenic; phenotype.

Grants and funding

Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province, China (2022CXGC010606) and Shandong Province Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System Special Economic Animal Industry Innovation Team Project (SDAIT-21-05).