Characterization of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolated from municipal and hospital wastewater in Japan

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to characterize the strains of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) isolated from municipal and hospital wastewater by detecting antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) as well as antibiotic susceptibility. To identify the source of ESBL-EC, multi-locus sequence typing and typing plasmids that may carry ESBL-producing genes were conducted.

Methods: Wastewater was sampled twice a month from February 2019 to February 2020 from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and hospital located in a city in northeastern Japan. Throughout the study period, 279 and 37 strains of ESBL-EC were isolated from municipal and hospital wastewater, respectively.

Results: All 316 isolates were resistant to ampicillin and cefotaxime and susceptible to imipenem and tigecycline. Almost all (98.1%) of the ESBL-EC isolates possessed bla_CTX-M, and the bla_CTX-M-9 group was detected most frequently (62.3%). Multi-locus sequence typing revealed a higher diversity of sequence types (STs) in the isolates from municipal wastewater than in those from hospital wastewater; although ST131, which recently caused nosocomial- and community-associated infections worldwide, was dominant in both types of wastewater. All ST131 isolates possessed the IncFII plasmid, which is often reported to carry bla_CTX-M.

Conclusions: These results demonstrated that healthy people carry clinically important antibiotic-resistant bacteria and ARGs, motivating routine monitoring of municipal wastewater to detect such antibiotic-resistant bacteria and ARGs from a variety of sources supported by the high diversity of STs in the present study.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistant bacteria; Antibiotic resistant genes; Multi-locus sequencing typing; Nosocomial infections; Wastewater.