Domestic Cats Constitute a Natural Reservoir of Human Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Types

Abstract

Feces of 70 diarrhoeic and 230 non-diarrhoeic domestic cats from Sao Paulo, Brazil were investigated for enteropathogenic (EPEC), enterohaemorrhagic (EHEC) and enterotoxigenic (ETEC) Escherichia coli types. While ETEC and EHEC strains were not found, 15 EPEC strains were isolated from 14 cats, of which 13 were non-diarrhoeic, and one diarrhoeic. None of 15 EPEC strains carried the bfpA gene or the EPEC adherence factor plasmid, indicating atypical EPEC types. The EPEC strains were heterogeneous with regard to intimin types, such as eae-theta (three strains), eae-kappa (n = 3), eae-alpha1 (n = 2), eae-iota (n = 2), one eae-alpha2, eae-beta1 and eae-eta each, and two were not typeable. The majority of the EPEC isolates adhered to HEp-2 cells in a localized adherence-like pattern and were positive for fluorescence actin staining. The EPEC strains belonged to 12 different serotypes, including O111:H25 and O125:H6, which are known to be pathogens in humans. Multi locus sequence typing revealed a close genetic similarity between the O111:H25 and O125:H6 strains from cats, dogs and humans. Our results show that domestic cats are colonized by EPEC, including serotypes previously described as human pathogens. As these EPEC strains are also isolated from humans, a cycle of mutual infection by EPEC between cats and its households cannot be ruled out, though the transmission dynamics among the reservoirs are not yet understood clearly.

Detection of virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes in Escherichia coli isolates from diarrhoiec dogs in Iran

“…The fact that virulence genes were detected in the isolates investigated indicates that they were pathogenic E. coli strains (Bentancor et al 2007, Shahrani et al 2014. Although the serotypes of the isolates in this study were not determined, they could belong to the serogroups capable of causing zoonotic infections (Morato et al 2009, de Almeida et al 2012, Tramuta et al 2014. The 47.1% pathogenic E. coli prevalence in this study is higher when compared with 44.4, 25 and 37.1% faecal pathogenic E. coli prevalence among 45, 68 and 70 dogs with diarrhoea reported in Canada (Hammemermulaer et al 1995), Brazil (Puno-Sarmiento et al 2013) and Egypt (Ali and Metwaly 2015), respectively.…”

“…E. coli have been implicated severally in clinical cases of diarrhoea in dogs (Beutin 1999, Morato et al 2009, Paula and Marin 2009, Puno-Sarmiento et al 2013. But mere isolation of E. coli from diarrhoiec faeces is not enough to regard such isolate as a diarrhoeagenic strain.…”

“…Faecal shedding of E. coli by companion animals constitutes an important source of environmental contamination (Morato et al 2009). Animals with clinical conditions such as diarrhoea usually have immune suppression which favours increased faecal shedding of E. coli (de Almeida et al 2012).…”

Evaluating the Occurrence of Escherichia albertii in Chicken Carcass Rinses by PCR, Vitek Analysis, and Sequencing of the rpoB Gene

“…Isolates initially recovered from stool specimens from sick Bangladeshi children (1,2) were preliminarily identified as atypical eae-positive Hafnia alvei and later were determined to be a new species, named E. albertii. From 1992 until now, E. albertii has been recovered on multiple continents from healthy and diseased birds, humans, and a cat (5)(6)(7)(8)(9). Most recently, E. albertii has been detected in sick humans in Japan, where Ooka et al and Konno et al found it to be the major causative agent in a restaurant-associated outbreak (9,10).…”

Virulence genes in Escherichia coli isolated from feces and urine of cats

“…Morato et al (2009) examined fecal samples from 300 cats for diarrheagenic E. coli types and isolated 15 eae+ E. coli strains from 14 cats (13 non-diarrheic and one diarrheic). They suggested that cats could be a natural reservoir for AEEC strains, serving as a source of transmission of these strains to humans.…”