Zoonotic potential of multidrug-resistant extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli obtained from healthy poultry carcasses in Salvador, Brazil

Abstract

The zoonotic potential to cause human and/or animal infections among multidrug-resistant extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli from avian origin was investigated. Twenty-seven extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli isolates containing the increased survival gene (iss) were obtained from the livers of healthy and diseased poultry carcasses at two slaughterhouses in Salvador, northeastern Brazil. The antimicrobial resistance-susceptibility profiles were conducted with antibiotics of avian and/or human use by the standardized disc-diffusion method. Antimicrobial resistance was higher for levofloxacin (51.8%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (70.4%), ampicillin (81.5%), cefalotin (88.8%), tetracycline (100%) and streptomycin (100%). The minimum inhibitory concentrations above the resistance breakpoints of doxycycline, neomycin, oxytetracycline and enrofloxacin reached, respectively, 88.0%, 100%, 75% and 91.7% of the isolates. Strains with high and low antimicrobial resistance were i.p. administered to Swiss mice, and histopathological examination was carried out seven days after infection. Resistance to goat and human serum complement was also evaluated. The results show that Swiss mice challenged with strain 2B (resistant to 11 antimicrobials) provoked a severe degeneration of hepatocytes besides lymphocytic infiltration in the liver, whereas the spleen showed areas of degeneration of the white and red pulp. Conversely, the spleen and liver of mice challenged with strain 4A (resistant to two antimicrobials) were morphologically preserved. In addition, complement resistance to goat and human serum was high for strain 2B and low for strain 4A. Our data show that multidrug resistance and pathogenesis can be correlated in extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli strains obtained from apparently healthy poultry carcasses, increasing the risk for human public healthy.

Fig. 1

Resistance to serum complement of multidrug resistant avian ExPEC strains harboring the iss gene.

Fig. 2

Histological damage to laboratory animals after challenge with avian ExPEC. The slides of the liver (A and B) and spleen (C and D) of Swiss mice challenged with strain 4A (A and C) and 2B (B and D) are shown. The full arrow (A and B) indicates leukocyte infiltration whereas empty arrow shows degeneration of hepatocytes (B). The full star shows portal space (A) and empty star shows degeneration of red besides white pulp (D). The asterisk shows the white pulp of the spleen in normal morphology (C).