Virulence factors, antibiotic resistance genes and genetic relatedness of commensal Escherichia coli isolates from dogs and their owners.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a normal flora of gastrointestinal tracts of humans and warm-blooded animals including dogs that has close vicinity with humans. Because the inter-species transmission of E. coli between pets and human beings, within a household, obtaining more information about the epidemiology, genetics, virulence factors, and antibiotic resistance of E. coli from dogs and their owners will help to control the inter-species transmission and treatment of E. coli infections. In this study we characterize and compare the antibiotic resistance and virulence profiles of fecal E. coli isolates from dogs and their owners. A total of 149 commensal E. coli isolates comprised 62 isolates from dogs, 56 isolates from their owners and 31 isolates from humans with no pet as control were collected. Extracted DNA was assessed for the presence of antibiotic resistance genes cmlA (chloramphenicol), sulI (sulfamethoxazole), floR (florfenicol) and blaCTX-M1 (cefotaxime) and virulence genes (papA, ompT, hlyD, traT, tsh and cnf1). To determine the extent of genetic relatedness of isolates, RAPD-PCR was performed. sulI and traT genes were the most dominant resistance profile and the most prevalent virulence gene in all groups, respectively, while hlyD had the lowest frequency among investigated virulence genes. Based on RAPD-PCR analysis clonal sharing between dogs and their owners were observed in 2/28 (7.1%) potential within-household clone-sharing pairs. Allowing dog to lick on owner's face, dog sex (female dogs), dog's sexual status (intact dogs) and times of disposing the feces (≥twice a day) were associated with a higher percentage of RAPD profile similarity (P < 0.05). The current study did not show an obvious evidence to prove considerable transmission of fecal E. coli from dogs to their owners. But in two households, there were relationship between isolates from dogs and their owners.

Virulence Characteristics and Antibiotic Resistance Patterns among Various Phylogenetic Groups of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Isolates.

The aim of this study was to determine the resistance patterns of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) isolates and to investigate the frequency of several virulence genes, including fimH, papA, hlyD, cnf-1, sitA, and tsh, among various phylogenetic groups of UPEC isolates. A total of 85 E. coli isolates were recovered from urine samples from outpatients with a clinical diagnosis of uncomplicated urinary tract infections. A molecular approach to examine the antimicrobial resistance patterns was employed using PCR and the disc diffusion method. The detected frequencies of the virulence factor genes determined using PCR were: fimH (34.1%), papA (9.4%), hlyD (21.2%), cnf-1 (3.5%), sitA (15.3%), and tsh (27.1%). These results revealed that the isolates were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT) (74.1%), cefotaxime (CTX) (68.2%), and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (AMC) (94.1%), and they were relatively less resistant to N (56.5%). According to these results, further investigation is needed to determine exactly whether or not SXT, CTX, and AMC are appropriate antibiotics for the treatment of UPEC infections in southern Iran. Although these results demonstrate that fimH is the most frequent virulence gene among UPEC isolates, the high prevalence of isolates that do not encode fimH (75.9%) and the relatively low frequency of isolates that carry other virulence genes require further investigation to clarify the role of the other potential virulence factors in the pathogenesis of these isolates.