Colistin Resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Snakes in Taiwan

Po-Yu Liu; Ling-Ling Weng; Shu-Ying Tseng; Chou-Chen Huang; Ching-Chang Cheng; Yan-Chiao Mao; Kwong-Chung Tung

doi:10.1155/2017/7058396

Colistin Resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Snakes in Taiwan

Can J Infect Dis Med Microbiol. 2017:2017:7058396. doi: 10.1155/2017/7058396. Epub 2017 Sep 25.

Authors

Po-Yu Liu^{1

2}, Ling-Ling Weng³, Shu-Ying Tseng³, Chou-Chen Huang⁴, Ching-Chang Cheng⁵, Yan-Chiao Mao⁶, Kwong-Chung Tung³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
² Rong Hsing Research Center for Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
³ Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁴ Veterinary Teaching Hospital, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City, Taiwan.
⁵ Laboratory Animal Service Center, Office of Research and Development, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Emergency Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.

Abstract

This study included fifty-eight isolates of P. aeruginosa from the oral cavity of snakes that were recruited from clinical cases, captive and wild snakes. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for the determination of susceptibility were identified by the broth microdilution method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to detect β-lactamases genes. With regard to antipseudomonal antibiotics, the lowest nonsusceptible rates were in aztreonam (15%), piperacillin/tazobactam (12%), and amikacin (9%). The nonsusceptible rates were high in gentamicin (33%) and colistin (55%). Meanwhile, bla_TEM presented in 100% of isolates where bla_AmpC, bla_OXA-1, and bla_OXA-10 came at 94.8%, 89.7%, and 27.6%, respectively. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains and colistin-resistant strains highlights the potential breach of public health as P. aeruginosa could be transmitted through either direct contact or indirect dissemination through the environment. This study reports that the highly resistant P. aeruginosa from snakes' oral cavity were discovered for the very first time in Taiwan.