Prevalence, Virulence, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Molecular Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates From Drinking Water in China

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important opportunistic pathogen and remains a major threat to the microbial safety of drinking water. There is a lack of comprehensive data on P. aeruginosa contamination in drinking water in China. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence, genetic diversity, virulence genes, and antimicrobial resistance of P. aeruginosa isolated from mineral water and spring water in China. From January 2013 to January 2014, 314 drinking water samples were collected from 23 cities in China. Of the collected samples, 77 (24.5%) were contaminated with P. aeruginosa, and these comprised 34 raw water (30.4%), 39 activated carbon-filtered water (30.6%), and four final water product (3.9%). A total of 132 P. aeruginosa isolates were obtained, and all of them showed the presence of virulence genes, with the detection rates of ExoU, ExoS, phzM, toxA, and lasB genes being 7.6, 86.3, 95.5, 89.4, and 100%, respectively. All isolates were sensitive to the 14 antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, ofloxacin, norfloxacin, gentamicin, tobramycin, amikacin, polymyxin B, imipenem, meropenem, aztreonam, ceftazidime, cefepime, and piperacillin/tazobactam) tested. The 132 isolates were categorized into 42 sequence types according to multilocus sequence typing, and ST235 accounted for 8.3% (11) of the total isolates. Thus, this study provides comprehensive data on the prevalence and characteristics of P. aeruginosa in drinking water in China and can aid in developing preventive measures against contamination during the drinking water treatment process.

Antibiotic resistance’s Genotypic and Phenotypic Characteristics and the Frequency of Virulence Factors in P. aeruginosa Isolates Isolated from Water Samples in Iran

“…Szita et al [ 2 ] reported 94 contaminated samples with P. aeruginosa out of 160 well water samples [ 2 ]. Wei et al [ 13 ] reported 77 cases (24.5%) of P. aeruginosa from mineral water and spring water samples collected in China [ 14 ]. According to previous research by Wu et al [ 16 ], P. aeruginosa contamination in raw water (30.4%) and activated carbon filtered water (38.6%) was significantly higher than in raw water (3.9%) [ 13 ].…”

“…Wei et al [ 13 ] reported 77 cases (24.5%) of P. aeruginosa from mineral water and spring water samples collected in China [ 14 ]. According to previous research by Wu et al [ 16 ], P. aeruginosa contamination in raw water (30.4%) and activated carbon filtered water (38.6%) was significantly higher than in raw water (3.9%) [ 13 ]. Stoler et al [ 17 ] reported that 41% of 80 water samples were positive for P. aeruginosa .…”

“…To isolate P. aeruginosa from samples, we followed ISO-16266-2008 International Organization of Standardization [ISO] (2008) instructions. [ 13 ]. Briefly, water sample (250 ml) was filtered through a 0.45-mm membrane (Millipore Co., Billerica, MA, United States) using a portable vacuum pump (Millivac-Mini Vacuum Pump XF54, Millipore, Merck, Germany).…”

An Italian survey on the microbiological safety of toys containing aqueous media

“…It is an opportunistic pathogen that can be fatal for immunocompromised patients in whom it can cause infections of the blood, lungs, urinary tract, eye, ear or other parts of the body after surgery. It is also recognized as a major cause of resistant infections due to its ability to form biofilms (Wei et al, 2020).…”

A Rapid and Sensitive Detection Method for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Using Visualized Recombinase Polymerase Amplification and Lateral Flow Strip Technology

“…LasB , an important extracellular virulence factor that belongs to the protease category of enzymes, plays a crucial role in the pathogenicity of P. aeruginosa during infection ( Thibodeaux et al, 2007 ). Moreover, lasB was the most frequent virulence gene identified in screens for virulence factors in patients of Northwestern Morocco (98.7%), children with cystic fibrosis in Iran (95.4%), patients with community- and hospital-acquired diarrhea (98%), and mineral water and spring water in China (100%) ( Faraji et al, 2016 ; Elmouaden et al, 2019 ; Fakhkhari et al, 2020 ; Wei et al, 2020 ). Considering the wide distribution of lasB , this virulence gene was selected as the target for the assay developed in the current study.…”