Dutch patients, retail chicken meat and poultry share the same ESBL genes, plasmids and strains

Abstract

Intestinal carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) -producing bacteria in food-producing animals and contamination of retail meat may contribute to increased incidences of infections with ESBL-producing bacteria in humans. Therefore, distribution of ESBL genes, plasmids and strain genotypes in Escherichia coli obtained from poultry and retail chicken meat in the Netherlands was determined and defined as 'poultry-associated' (PA). Subsequently, the proportion of E. coli isolates with PA ESBL genes, plasmids and strains was quantified in a representative sample of clinical isolates. The E. coli were derived from 98 retail chicken meat samples, a prevalence survey among poultry, and 516 human clinical samples from 31 laboratories collected during a 3-month period in 2009. Isolates were analysed using an ESBL-specific microarray, sequencing of ESBL genes, PCR-based replicon typing of plasmids, plasmid multi-locus sequence typing (pMLST) and strain genotyping (MLST). Six ESBL genes were defined as PA (bla(CTX-M-1) , bla(CTX-M-2) , bla(SHV-2) , bla(SHV-12) , bla(TEM-20) , bla(TEM-52) ): 35% of the human isolates contained PA ESBL genes and 19% contained PA ESBL genes located on IncI1 plasmids that were genetically indistinguishable from those obtained from poultry (meat). Of these ESBL genes, 86% were bla(CTX-M-1) and bla(TEM-52) genes, which were also the predominant genes in poultry (78%) and retail chicken meat (75%). Of the retail meat samples, 94% contained ESBL-producing isolates of which 39% belonged to E. coli genotypes also present in human samples. These findings are suggestive for transmission of ESBL genes, plasmids and E. coli isolates from poultry to humans, most likely through the food chain.

High Rates of Antimicrobial Drug Resistance Gene Acquisition after International Travel, the Netherlands

“…The difference in results could be caused by our use of a metagenomic approach, which might detect bla CTX-M in a much wider array of species than did studies investigating specific cultured Enterobacteriaceae spp. This difference in approach might furthermore explain that of the bla CTX-M genes detected before travel in the population in our study, most (9/11, 82%) were of the CTX-M-9 group, which contrasts studies that report that bla CTX-M-15 (which belongs to the CTX-M-1 group) is predominant in ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae in the Netherlands ( 16 , 25 , 26 ). Aside from the different method used, the population sizes in these studies were larger than the cohort in our current study.…”

Sequence Type 48 Escherichia coli Carrying the bla CTX-M-1 IncI1/ST3 Plasmid in Drinking Water in France

“…The bla CTX-M-1 gene was carried by a 100-kb IncI1/ST3 plasmid, as detected with S1 nuclease treatment of DNA followed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), Southern blot hybridizations with adequate digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled probes (Roche Applied Science, Mannheim, Germany), PCRbased replicon typing (Diatheva, Fano, Italy), and plasmid multilocus sequence typing (MLST) (5). The restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profile of the IncI1/ST3 plasmid after digestion with PstI or EcoRI was comparable but nonidentical to those of previously published bla CTX-M-1 IncI/ , an ST that has been observed previously in both humans and animals (7,8).…”

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase- and pAmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae among the general population in a livestock-dense area

“…In contrast to the other types of animals studied, mink are carnivores; they eat raw residual products from the poultry and fish industry at least once a day [27]. Given the fact that ESBL/pAmpC-E have been frequently found in poultry [2,4,6,17], it is likely that mink carry ESBL/pAmpC-E. It is still unclear if, and how, the presence of mink leads to an increased risk for carriage in the community.…”

“…ESBL/pAmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL/pAmpC-E) were initially only observed in human health care [2,3], but they are increasingly detected in the community [2,4e8] as well as in companion animals [9,10], livestock [2e4, 9,11,12] and meat [2,3,13]. Potential routes of transmission of ESBL/pAmpC-E to humans are via the food chain [2,3], by direct contact with animals [4] or indirectly via the environment [11,14].…”

“…Potential routes of transmission of ESBL/pAmpC-E to humans are via the food chain [2,3], by direct contact with animals [4] or indirectly via the environment [11,14].…”