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. 2023 Feb 1;85(2):149-156.
doi: 10.1292/jvms.22-0288. Epub 2022 Dec 9.

Antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiological analysis of Escherichia fergusonii harboring the mcr gene in pigs and broiler chickens in Okinawa, Japan

Tetsuya Kakita  1 , Hiroaki Shigemura  2 , Akira Fukuda  3 , Chiharu Katamune  2 , Minoru Nidaira  1 , Tsuyoshi Kudeken  1 , Hisako Kyan  1
Affiliations

Antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiological analysis of Escherichia fergusonii harboring the mcr gene in pigs and broiler chickens in Okinawa, Japan

Tetsuya Kakita et al. J Vet Med Sci. .

Abstract

The dissemination of mcr-harboring Enterobacteriaceae, e.g., Escherichia fergusonii, with resistance to colistin via animal products is a public health concern. In our previous study, E. fergusonii harboring the mcr gene were isolated from 11 pigs and 43 chickens. To understand the spread of mcr-harboring E. fergusonii in Okinawa, Japan, and to gain further insights into how they can be controlled, an antimicrobial susceptibility testing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), a conjugation test for the transferability of mcr-harboring plasmids, and PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) were performed using the 54 strains. According to the disk-diffusion and broth microdilution methods, 9 of the 11 strains from pigs and 9 of the 43 strains from chickens had multidrug resistance (MDR). The broth microdilution method showed that all strains were resistant to colistin, and the minimum inhibitory concentration of colistin was 4-16 μg/mL. PFGE suggested identical PFGE types were being transmitted within one pig farm, within one chicken farm, and among several chicken farms. These findings showed that some mcr-harboring E. fergusonii in Okinawa exhibited MDR, and these had spread within farms and between farms. In the mcr gene conjugation test and PBRT, a type IncI2 plasmid replicon was detected in all mcr-1-harboring transconjugants. Therefore, evidence suggests that the IncI2 plasmid is probably involved in the transmission of the mcr-1 gene. It is important to monitor the antimicrobial resistance profile and dissemination of the IncI2 plasmid in mcr-harboring E. fergusonii.

Keywords: Escherichia fergusonii; IncI2; broiler chicken; mcr-1; pig.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Antimicrobial susceptibility profile of 54 mcr-harboring Escherichia fergusonii strains from pigs and chickens.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of colistin for 54 mcr-harboring Escherichia fergusonii strains from pigs and chickens, as determined by broth microdilution method.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Dendrogram of 16 pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) types obtained by XbaI-PFGE of mcr-gene-harboring Escherichia fergusonii strains from pigs and chickens.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Supplementary concepts