Prevalence and molecular characteristics of Shewanella infection in diarrhea patients in Beijing, China 2017-2019

Ying Kang; Keyi Yu; Zhenzhou Huang; Bo Pang; Shengtian Liu; Tao Peng; Ying Li; Duochun Wang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1293577

Prevalence and molecular characteristics of Shewanella infection in diarrhea patients in Beijing, China 2017-2019

Front Microbiol. 2024 Jan 31:15:1293577. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1293577. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ying Kang^#^{1

2}, Keyi Yu^#³, Zhenzhou Huang^#⁴, Bo Pang^{2

3}, Shengtian Liu¹, Tao Peng¹, Ying Li^{1

2}, Duochun Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Shunyi District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
² Workstation for Microbial Infectious Disease, Shunyi District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
³ National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, China.
⁴ Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Shewanella is an important opportunistic pathogen distributed in marine environments that has caused an increasing number of clinical infections. However, there are few reports on the distribution and characteristics of Shewanella in the diarrheal pathogen spectrum. In this study, we have systematically described the prevalence of Shewanella infections in diarrhea patients in Beijing, China 2017-2019, and genome characteristics and antimicrobial susceptibility of Shewanella isolates.

Methods: Stool samples were collected from diarrhea patients in a surveillance project from 2017 to 2019. Shewanella strains were isolated, and identified using VITEKR 2 COMPACT and MALDI-TOF MS. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) analysis, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), phylogenetic analysis, virulence-associated genes and antimicrobial resistance genes analysis were used for genome characteristics description. The antibiotic susceptibility test was performed with microbroth dilution method.

Results: 1104 fecal samples were collected, and the Shewanella detection rate was 2.36% (26/1104). The main manifestations of infection caused by Shewanella spp. were diarrhea (100%, 26/26), abdominal pain (65.38%, 17/26), and vomiting (38.46%, 10/26). The 26 isolates were classified into 3 species (S. algae (n = 18), S. indica (n = 5), and S. chilikensis (n = 3)) and 22 sequence types. Core genome single nucleotide polymorphism-based evolutionary tree identified three clone groups corresponding to three infection events in the same months in 2017 and 2019. The putative virulence-associated gene pool consisted of 56 potential virulence genes, including 19 virulence gene factors. The resistance rates of the 26 isolates to 17 antibiotics from high to low were as follows: polymyxin E (76.92%), cefotaxime (57.69%), ampicillin (50%), ampicillin-sulbactam (34.62%), nalidixic acid (15.38%), ciprofloxacin (11.54%), selectrin (3.846%,1/26), and tetracycline (3.846%, 1/26). The rate of multidrug resistance was 38.46% (10/26).

Discussion: Monitoring for Shewanella spp. should be added to the routine surveillance of infectious diarrhea during the epidemic season.

Keywords: Shewanella; antibiotic susceptibility; diarrhea; molecular characteristics; prevalence.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program of China (2021FY100904).