Occurrence of Antibiotic-Resistant Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Clonal Group A in Wastewater Effluents

• Published in: Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 73; no. 13; pp. 4180 - 4184
• Main Authors: Boczek, Laura A, Rice, Eugene W, Johnston, Brian, Johnson, James R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for Microbiology 01.07.2007
• Subjects: Accounting; Bacterial Typing Techniques; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; DNA, Bacterial - isolation & purification; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Bacterial - genetics; E coli; Effluents; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli - drug effects; Escherichia coli - genetics; Escherichia coli - isolation & purification; Escherichia coli - pathogenicity; Escherichia coli Infections - etiology; Escherichia coli Infections - microbiology; Escherichia coli Proteins - genetics; Fimbriae Proteins - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes, Bacterial; Humans; Microbial Ecology; Microbiology; Pathogens; Phylogeny; Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; Sewage - microbiology; Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination - pharmacology; Urinary Tract Infections - etiology; Urinary Tract Infections - microbiology; Virulence - genetics; USA; Resistance; Antibiotic; Escherichia coli; Bacteria; Effluent; Enterobacteriaceae; Waste water
• ISSN: 0099-2240; 1098-5336
• DOI: 10.1128/AEM.02225-06

Isolates of Escherichia coli belonging to clonal group A (CGA), a recently described disseminated cause of drug-resistant urinary tract infections in humans, were present in four of seven sewage effluents collected from geographically dispersed areas of the United States. All 15 CGA isolates (1% of the 1,484 isolates analyzed) exhibited resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ), accounting for 19.5% of the 77 TMP-SMZ-resistant isolates. Antimicrobial resistance patterns, virulence traits, O:H serotypes, and phylogenetic groupings were compared for CGA and selected non-CGA isolates. The CGA isolates exhibited a wider diversity of resistance profiles and somatic antigens than that found in most previous characterizations of this clonal group. This is the first report of recovery from outside a human host of E. coli CGA isolates with virulence factor and antibiotic resistance profiles typical of CGA isolates from a human source. The occurrence of "human-type" CGA in wastewater effluents demonstrates a potential mode for the dissemination of this clonal group in the environment, with possible secondary transmission to new human or animal hosts.