Prevalence, antibiotic profile, virulence determinants, ESBLs, and non-β-lactam encoding genes of MDR Proteus spp. isolated from infected dogs

Reham M El-Tarabili; Elsayyad M Ahmed; Nada K Alharbi; Maha A Alharbi; Ahlam H AlRokban; Doaa Naguib; Sadeq K Alhag; Tamer Mohamed El Feky; Ahmed Ezzat Ahmed; Ahmed E Mahmoud

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.952689

Prevalence, antibiotic profile, virulence determinants, ESBLs, and non-β-lactam encoding genes of MDR Proteus spp. isolated from infected dogs

Front Genet. 2022 Oct 6:13:952689. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.952689. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bacteriology, Immunology, and Mycology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
² Department of Virology, Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.
³ Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Hygiene and Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Animal Health Research Institute(AHRI), Mansoura laboratory Branch, Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence, antibiogram, virulence, extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), and non-β-lactam encoding genes of Proteus species isolated from infected dogs in Ismailia province, Egypt. The study was conducted on 70 fecal swabs collected from dogs with diarrhea for bacteriological identification of Proteus spp. The positive isolates were evaluated for antibiotic susceptibility, molecular tests of virulence, ESBLs, and non-β-lactam encoding genes. Prevalence of Proteus spp. was 35.7% (25/70), including Proteus mirabilis (n = 23) and Proteus vulgaris (n = 2). The Proteus spp. prevalence revealed diversity, higher in males than females, in ages < 12 weeks. Investigation of antimicrobial resistance was found against penicillin and amoxicillin (100%), amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (32%), cephalosporins: cefotaxime and ceftazidime (36%), and monobactam: aztreonam (28%) as ESBLs, in addition to tetracycline (32%) and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole (100%). The strains retrieved by PCR revealed ureC, zapA, and rsbA virulence genes with variant prevalence as 92%, 60%, and 52%, respectively. In addition, the recovered strains contained ESBL genes with a dramatic variable prevalence of 100%, 92%, 36%, and 32%, to bla _TEM, bla _SHV, bla _CTX-M, and bla _OXA-1, respectively, and non β-lactam encoding genes with a prevalence of 100%, 48%, 44%, 20%, and 12%, to sul1, tetA, intI1, qnrA, and aadA1. Moreover, 28% (7/25) of recovering strains were MDR (multidrug-resistant) up to four classes of antimicrobials, and 48% (12/25) of the examined strains were MDR up to three antimicrobial classes. In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge, our study could be the first report recording MDR Proteus spp. in dogs in Egypt.

Keywords: Egypt; MDR; Proteus; antimicrobial resistance; diarrhea; dog; prevalence; virulence genes.