Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jul 11:15:1353603.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1353603. eCollection 2024.

An outbreak of Providencia rettgeri bacteremia at a Ptyas mucosus farm in Hainan, China

Lixia Fan #  1 , Jiwen Pan #  1   2 , Jifeng Zeng  1   3 , Guiying Guo  1   4 , Nou Yang  1 , Xuesong Li  1 , Muhammad Nafees Ur Rehman  1 , Jiping Zheng  1   3
Affiliations

An outbreak of Providencia rettgeri bacteremia at a Ptyas mucosus farm in Hainan, China

Lixia Fan et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

Aim: To describe the histopathology and etiology of an outbreak of respiratory disease at a Ptyas mucosus farm in Hainan, China.

Methods and results: The etiology was confirmed by gross examination and microscopic analysis. The bacterial isolates from blood and internal organs were identified by biochemical analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The virulence and antibiotic resistance characteristics of the isolates were further demonstrated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), disk diffusion testing, and LD50 analysis in Kunming mice. Histopathological analysis of the diseased P. mucosus revealed systemic lesions, including severe airway obstruction with large numbers of inflammatory cells and cellulose exudates in the lungs; severe multifocal hepatocyte vacuolar degeneration and necrosis in the liver with excessive inflammatory exudates and chronic granuloma; splenic hemorrhage and partial loss of splenic structure; and renal vascular and interstitial congestion. Providencia rettgeri was isolated from the blood and multiple internal organs (liver, spleen, kidneys, and lungs). All examined isolates (H1, H4, and H13) were multidrug-resistant but sensitive to four antibiotics-cefepime, imipenem, chloramphenicol, and ciprofloxacin. Both H1 and H4 carried five resistance genes [bla OXA, tet(A), tet(B), tet(E), and aac (3)-IIa], whereas H13 only carried the tet(A) gene. The dominant virulence pattern of the three isolates was hlyA + ZapA + luxS + rsbA. The virulence of H1 strain was tested, and its 50% lethal dose (LD50) in mice was 2.29 × 108 CFU ml-1.

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to describe an outbreak of bacteremia caused by P. rettgeri in farmed rat snakes.

Significance and impact of the study: The results highlight that P. rettgeri is an emerging bacterial pathogen in farmed reptiles.

Keywords: Providencia rettgeri; Ptyas mucosus; histopathology; resistance; virulence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Histopathological changes in Ptyas mucosus infected with Providencia rettgeri. (A) Most of the airway was blocked by large numbers of inflammatory cells and fibrous exudates (arrows). (B) Large numbers of inflammatory cells invaded the lung tissues (arrow). (C,D) The liver had diffused vacuolar degeneration as well as a large amount of surrounding inflammatory exudates (arrow). (E) Chronic granuloma was detected in the parenchyma of the liver with caseous nodules (arrow) accompanied by thickening of the surrounding blood vessel wall. (F) Spleen bleeding, partial spleen structure loss (arrow). (G,H) Renal vascular and interstitial congestion with inflammatory cell infiltration (arrow).
Figure 2
Figure 2
16S rRNA phylogenetic tree of the isolated strains.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abbas K. F., Khafaji J. K. A., Al-Shukri M. S. (2015). Molecular detection of some virulence genes in Proteus mirabilis isolated from Hillaprovince. Int. J. Res. Stud. Biosci. 3, 85–89. doi: 10.11648/j.avs.20150301.15 - DOI
    1. Alamuri P., Eaton K. A., Himpsl S. D., Smith S. N., Mobley H. L. T. (2009). Vaccination with proteus toxic agglutinin, a hemolysin-independent cytotoxin in vivo, protects against Proteus mirabilis urinary tract infection. Infect. Immun. 77, 632–641. doi: 10.1128/IAI.01050-08, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aust P. W., Van Tri N. V., Natusch D. J. D., Alexander G. J. (2017). Asian snake farms: conservation curse or sustainable enterprise? Oryx 51, 498–505. doi: 10.1017/S003060531600034X - DOI
    1. Barrios H., Garza-Ramos U., Reyna-Flores F., Sanchez-Perez A., Rojas-Moreno T., Garza-Gonzalez E., et al. . (2013). Isolation of carbapenem-resistant NDM-1-positive Providencia rettgeri in Mexico. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 68, 1934–1936. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkt124, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bino Sundar S. T., Palanivelrajan M., Kavitha K. T., Azhahianambi P., Jeyathilakan N., Gomathinayagam S., et al. . (2015). Occurrence of the pentastomid Porocephalus crotali (Humboldt, 1811) in an Indian rat snake (Ptyas mucosus): a case report. J. Parasit. Dis. 39, 401–404. doi: 10.1007/s12639-013-0336-z, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources