Antimicrobial resistance profiles and molecular epidemiology of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from Scottish bovine mastitis cases

• Published in: Epidemiology and infection Vol. 153; p. e15
• Main Authors: Pollock, Jolinda, Foster, Geoffrey, Henderson, Katrina, Bell, Jennifer, Hutchings, Michael R., Paterson, Gavin K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 17.01.2025
• Subjects: Acid resistance; Acids; Amoxicillin; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Bacterial infections; Cattle; Cefotaxime; Cephalexin; Chronic infection; Clavulanic acid; Dairy cattle; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; Epidemiology; Female; Gene sequencing; Genomes; Gram-negative bacteria; Klebsiella; Klebsiella Infections - epidemiology; Klebsiella Infections - microbiology; Klebsiella Infections - veterinary; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Klebsiella pneumoniae - classification; Klebsiella pneumoniae - drug effects; Klebsiella pneumoniae - genetics; Klebsiella pneumoniae - isolation & purification; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Mastitis; Mastitis, Bovine - epidemiology; Mastitis, Bovine - microbiology; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Milk; Molecular Epidemiology; Multidrug resistance; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Neomycin; Nucleotide sequence; Opportunist infection; Original Paper; Pathogens; Penicillin; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Scotland - epidemiology; Siderophores; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; Streptomycin; Virulence; Virulence Factors - genetics; Whole Genome Sequencing; Scotland; United Kingdom > UK; Germany; Klebsiella; WGS; mastitis; MALDI-TOF; AMR
• ISSN: 0950-2688; 1469-4409; 1469-4409
• DOI: 10.1017/S0950268824001754

Klebsiella pneumoniae are opportunistic pathogens which can cause mastitis in dairy cattle. K. pneumoniae mastitis often has a poor cure rate and can lead to the development of chronic infection, which has an impact on both health and production. However, there are few studies which aim to fully characterize K. pneumoniae by whole-genome sequencing from bovine mastitis cases. Here, K. pneumoniae isolates associated with mastitis in dairy cattle were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and whole-genome sequencing. Furthermore, whole-genome sequence data were used for phylogenetic analyses and both virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) prediction, in parallel with phenotypic AMR testing. Forty-two isolates identified as K. pneumoniae were subject to whole-genome sequencing, with 31 multi-locus sequence types being observed, suggesting the source of these isolates was likely environmental. Isolates were examined for key virulence determinants encoding acquired siderophores, colibactin, and hypermucoidy. The majority of these were absent, except for ybST (encoding yersiniabactin) which was present in six isolates. Across the dataset, there were notable levels of phenotypic AMR against streptomycin (26.2%) and tetracycline (19%), and intermediate susceptibility to cephalexin (26.2%) and neomycin (21.4%). Of importance was the detection of two ESBL-producing isolates, which demonstrated multi-drug resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, streptomycin, tetracycline, cefotaxime, cephalexin, and cefquinome.