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. 2022 May 11;19(10):5848.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19105848.

KPC-3-, GES-5-, and VIM-1-Producing Enterobacterales Isolated from Urban Ponds

Pedro Teixeira  1   2 , Nuno Pinto  2 , Isabel Henriques  3 , Marta Tacão  1   2
Affiliations

KPC-3-, GES-5-, and VIM-1-Producing Enterobacterales Isolated from Urban Ponds

Pedro Teixeira et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Carbapenems are antibiotics of pivotal importance in human medicine, the efficacy of which is threatened by the increasing prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE). Urban ponds may be reservoirs of CRE, although this hypothesis has been poorly explored. We assessed the proportion of CRE in urban ponds over a one-year period and retrieved 23 isolates. These were submitted to BOX-PCR, PFGE, 16S rDNA sequencing, antibiotic susceptibility tests, detection of carbapenemase-encoding genes, and conjugation assays. Isolates were affiliated with Klebsiella (n = 1), Raoultella (n = 11), Citrobacter (n = 8), and Enterobacter (n = 3). Carbapenemase-encoding genes were detected in 21 isolates: blaKPC (n = 20), blaGES-5 (n = 6), and blaVIM (n = 1), with 7 isolates carrying two carbapenemase genes. Clonal isolates were collected from different ponds and in different campaigns. Citrobacter F6, Raoultella N9, and Enterobacter N10 were predicted as pathogens from whole-genome sequence analysis, which also revealed the presence of several resistance genes and mobile genetic elements. We found that blaKPC-3 was located on Tn4401b (Citrobacter F6 and Enterobacter N10) or Tn4401d (Raoultella N9). The former was part of an IncFIA-FII pBK30683-like plasmid. In addition, blaGES-5 was in a class 3 integron, either chromosomal (Raoultella N9) or plasmidic (Enterobacter N10). Our findings confirmed the role of urban ponds as reservoirs and dispersal sites for CRE.

Keywords: Enterobacterales; antibiotic resistance; carbapenemases; urban aquatic environments.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map depicting the location, designation and coordinates of the sampled ponds (P1–P5) and estuarine canal (E1). Green areas indicate the location of urban parks, while blue areas represent the Ria de Aveiro urban canals. The location of the municipal hospital is also denoted (H).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genetic context of blaKPC-3 in C. freundii F6 (A), E. kobei N10 (B), E. coli BK32602 (C) (KU295134), K. pneumoniae strain 39427 (D) (CP054266), and K. pneumoniae FCF3SP (E) (CP004367).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Genetic context of blaGES-5 in E. kobei N10 (A), E. cloacae Ecl-W (B) (MN180807), K. oxytoca strain H143640707 (C) (KX946994), and E. cloacae LIM73 (D) (HE616889).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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