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Whole genome sequencing of ESBL-producing E. coli isolated from patients, farm waste and canals in Thailand

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Runcharoen, C 
Raven, KE 
Reuter, S 
Kallonen, T 
Paksanont, S 

Abstract

Background: Tackling multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli requires evidence from One Health studies that capture numerous potential reservoirs in circumscribed geographic areas. Methods: We conducted a survey of extended β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli isolated from patients, canals and livestock wastewater in eastern Thailand between 2014 and 2015, and analyzed isolates using whole genome sequencing. Results: The bacterial collection of 149 isolates consisted of 84 isolates from a single hospital and 65 from the hospital sewer, canals and farm wastewater within a 20 km radius. E. coli ST131 predominated the clinical collection (28.6%), but was uncommon in the environment. Genome-based comparison of E. coli from infected patients and their immediate environment indicated low genetic similarity overall between the two, although three clinical-environmental isolate pairs differed by <5 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Thai E. coli isolates were dispersed throughout a phylogenetic tree containing a global E. coli collection. All Thai ESBL-positive E. coli isolates were multidrug resistant, including high rates of resistance to tobramycin (77.2%), gentamicin (77.2%), ciprofloxacin (67.8%) and trimethoprim (68.5%). ESBL was encoded by six different CTX-M elements and SHV-12. Three isolates from clinical samples (n=2) or a hospital sewer (n=1) were resistant to the carbapenem drugs (encoded by NDM-1, NDM-5 or GES-5), and three isolates (clinical (n=1) and canal water (n=2)) were resistant to colistin (encoded by mcr-1); no isolates were resistant to both carbapenems and colistin. Conclusions: Tackling ESBL-producing E. coli in this setting will be challenging based on widespread distribution, but the low prevalence of resistance to carbapenems and colistin suggests that efforts are now required to prevent these from becoming ubiquitous.

Description

Keywords

Escherichia coli, ESBL, genome sequence phylogeny

Journal Title

Genome Research

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1756-994X
1756-994X

Volume Title

9

Publisher

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (098600/Z/12/Z)
CR and NC were supported by grants from the Royal Thai Golden Jubilee studentship scheme (PHD/0116/2556), Thailand, the Newton Fund, UK and Thailand One Health University Network. This publication also presents independent research supported by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (HICF-T5-342 and WT098600), a parallel funding partnership between the UK Department of Health and Wellcome Trust.