Salmonella, Campylobacter and Enterococcus spp.: Their Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and their Spatial Relationships in a Synoptic Study of the Upper Oconee River Basin

Abstract

Rivers may serve as reservoirs for enteric organisms. Very little is known about the boundaries of microbial communities in moving bodies of water so this study was undertaken to find the limits of distribution of some bacteria, focusing on enteric organisms. The presence of Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Enterococcus spp. and the antimicrobial resistance phenotypes carried by these organisms was evaluated for the Upper Oconee River basin, a small river in the lower Piedmont of northeastern Georgia, USA. Samples were obtained from 83 sites during a 3-h period on a spring day (April 2005) in an approximately 30 x 20 km region. Campylobacter spp. was isolated at 12 sites. The Campylobacter isolates from three sites were resistant to tetracycline. Of the five short-variable region (SVR) subtypes of Campylobacter that were found, three were found at more than one site, two types were found twice, and one subtype was found three times. Enterococcus was isolated at 71 sites. E. casseliflavus was the most common species. Based on species identification and antimicrobial resistance patterns, 24 types of Enterococcus were found. Salmonella was isolated from 62 sites. Of the 19 Salmonella serovars that were isolated, serovar Muenchen accounted for about 20% of the isolates. The next three most common serovars isolated, Rubislaw, Hartford, and Give, accounted for about 44% of the river isolates. Antimicrobial resistance profiling offered limited differentiation of Salmonella isolates because only seven isolates were resistant to any antimicrobial. The sites at which Salmonella, Campylobacter, or Enterococcus were isolated did not correlate with each other or with the total coliform number or Escherichia coli count for the site. However, isolates of some of the same species and type occurred in clusters that were restricted to areas within 5 to 6 km.

Salmonella in surface and drinking water: Occurrence and water-mediated transmission

“…Particular attention was also addressed to the evaluation of available and new approaches to monitor sources of Salmonella contamination, and to predict its presence in different aquatic environments (Savichtcheva, Okayama, & Okabe, 2007;Schriewer et al, 2010;Walters, Gannon, & Field, 2007;Wilkes et al, 2009). Additionally, the recently available data on the prevalence of antibiotic resistant Salmonella strains in surface and drinking water (Bhatta et al, 2007;Dolejská et al, 2009;Meinersmann et al, 2008;Oluyege et al, 2009;Patchanee et al, 2010) consistently indicate that these aquatic environments are a reservoir of MDR strains, which might contribute to the dissemination of these MDR strains through susceptible populations.…”

“…Reports of Salmonella prevalence in drinking water were instead more frequently from developing nations reflecting the higher concern relating to the use of low quality drinking water in these countries. Overall, the scientific community has mainly recently focused on the prevalence of this microorganism in impacted and non-impacted watersheds (Haley et al, 2009;Jokinen et al, 2011;Patchanee, Molla, White, Line, & Gebreyes, 2010), on the identification of the routes of salmonellae contamination (Gorski et al, 2011;Jokinen et al, 2010Jokinen et al, , 2011Obi et al, 2004;Patchanee et al, 2010), and on the influence of environmental factors on the spread of Salmonella in water (Haley et al, 2009;Jokinen et al, 2010;Meinersmann et al, 2008;Wilkes et al, 2009). Particular attention was also addressed to the evaluation of available and new approaches to monitor sources of Salmonella contamination, and to predict its presence in different aquatic environments (Savichtcheva, Okayama, & Okabe, 2007;Schriewer et al, 2010;Walters, Gannon, & Field, 2007;Wilkes et al, 2009).…”

“…Patchanee et al, 2010;Till, McBride, Ball, Taylor, & Pyle, 2008) and low impacted water (e.g. Jokinen et al, 2010;Meinersmann et al, 2008;Patchanee et al, 2010) to heavily impacted water sources (e.g. Bonadonna, Filetici, Nusca, & Paradiso, 2006;Jyoti et al, 2010).…”

Incidence and role of Salmonella in seafood safety

“…Shellenbarger et al (2008) found the Salmonella serovars Typhimurium, Javiana, and Heidelberg (in winter), and Kentucky, Glostrup, Infantis, Bovismorbificans and Give (in the summer) in water samples from the San Francisco estuary in California. Salmonella has also been found in river systems, such as the upper Oconee river basin in Georgia, US (Meinersmann et al, 2008).…”

Detection of Bacterial Pathogens in River Water Using Multiplex-PCR

“…Reports of Salmonella prevalence in drinking water were instead more frequent from developing nations reflecting the higher concern relating to the use of low quality drinking water in these countries. Overall, the scientific community has mainly recently focused on the prevalence of is microorganism in impacted and non-impacted watersheds Jokinen et al, 2011;Patchanee et al, 2010), on the identification of the routes of salmonellae contamination (Gorski et al, 2011;Jokinen et al, 2010Jokinen et al, , 2011Obi et al, 2004b;Patchanee et al, 2010), and on the influence of environmental factors on the spread of Salmonella in water Jokinen et al, 2010;Meinersmann et al, 2008;Wilkes et al, 2009).…”