Prevalence, serotype distribution, antibiotic susceptibility and genetic profiles of mesophilic Aeromonas species isolated from hospitalized diarrhoeal cases in Kolkata, India

• Published in: Journal of medical microbiology Vol. 53; no. 6; pp. 527 - 534
• Main Authors: Sinha, S, Shimada, T, Ramamurthy, T, Bhattacharya, S. K, Yamasaki, S, Takeda, Y, Nair, G. Balakrish
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reading Soc General Microbiol 01.06.2004; Society for General Microbiology
• Subjects: Aeromonas - classification; Aeromonas - drug effects; Aeromonas - genetics; Aeromonas caviae; Aeromonas hydrophila; Aeromonas veronii; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Diarrhea - epidemiology; Diarrhea - microbiology; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; Enterotoxins - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes, Bacterial; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections - epidemiology; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections - microbiology; Humans; India - epidemiology; Infectious diseases; Medical sciences; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Prevalence; Ribotyping; Serotyping; Species Specificity; Asia; India; India, West Bengal, Kolkata Dist; Prevalence; Microbiology; Aeromonas; Diarrhea; Epidemiology; Antibiotic; Sensitivity; Digestive diseases; Bacteria; Intestinal disease; Vibrionaceae; Genetics; Serotype
• ISSN: 0022-2615; 1473-5644
• DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.05269-0

1 National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Beliaghata, Kolkata - 700 010, India 2 National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162, Japan 3 Laboratory of International Prevention of Epidemics, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai-shi, Osaka 599-8531, Japan 4 Faculty of Human Life Sciences, Jissen Women's University, Tokyo 181-8510, Japan 5 International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B), Dhaka - 1212, Bangladesh Correspondence G. Balakrish Nair gbnair{at}icddrb.org Received March 31, 2003 Accepted January 9, 2004 A comprehensive study was performed to examine incidence, species distribution, drugs sensitivity, virulence genes and molecular fingerprints of Aeromonas species isolated from patients with acute diarrhoea over a period of 2 years in Kolkata, India. Following the Aerokey II scheme, more than 95 % of strains were identified to species level. Seven different species were encountered in this study, with Aeromonas caviae being dominant, followed by Aeromonas hydrophila and Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria. Thirty different serotypes were encountered, with O16, O83 and O85 being dominant, but no serotype was associated specifically with a single species. The majority of Aeromonas strains exhibited multidrug resistance. The alt and act genes, which encode heat-labile cytotonic and cytotoxic enterotoxins, were respectively found in 71.9 and 20.1 % of strains examined. Only 2.4 % of strains carried the heat-stable cytotonic enterotoxin ( ast ) gene. The hlyA gene was found in 28 % of Aeromonas strains. With few exceptions, genomic diversity of Aeromonas strains belonging to the same serotype was observed by random amplification of polymorphic DNA PCR and ribotyping. Different species of Aeromonas and different clones of Aeromonas species seem to be associated with hospitalized cases of diarrhoea in Kolkata, India. Abbreviations: RAPD, random amplification of polymorphic DNA; UPGMA, unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages.