Common antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and genotypes of fecal Escherichia coli isolates from a single family over a 6-month period

Abstract

This study investigated the antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and genotypes among fecal Escherichia coli isolates from the members of a single Jordanian family over a 6-month period. A total of 55 (51%) E. coli isolates were resistant to >2, and 21 (19%) to >3 of the 14 tested antimicrobial agents, respectively. The highest resistance rates were observed to tetracycline (42%), followed by coamoxyclav and cotrimoxazole (32%), gentamicin (31%), and nalidixic acid (27%). Sixteen out of 21 (76%) multiresistant E. coli isolates (resistant to >3 drugs) transferred most of their resistance markers in vitro to E. coli K12. Five out of the six family members were colonized with E. coli carrying one or two of the two common plasmid sizes (54.3 and 13.2 kb). Ten of these isolates (48%) were positive for class 1 integron genes and harbored four tet (A) and five tet (B) genes, respectively, but all were negative for tet (39). The genetic diversity of E. coli isolates using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR demonstrated 13 major clusters of genotype groups, and most of the isolates (63%) belonged to one genotype group. This study indicates that all six family members are colonized with fecal E. coli isolates exhibiting a common number of antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and at least one prevalent genotype.