Association between Presence of Urovirulence Factors, Phylogenetic Class, and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns in 159 Uropathogenic &amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Escherichia coli&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; Samples Isolated from Dogs

Jennifer E Wells,Tea Gluhak,David A Bemis,Stephen A Kania,Joseph W Bartges

doi:10.4236/ojvm.2013.32031

Association between Presence of Urovirulence Factors, Phylogenetic Class, and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns in 159 Uropathogenic &lt;i&gt;Escherichia coli&lt;/i&gt; Samples Isolated from Dogs

Jennifer E Wells, Tea Gluhak + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/ojvm.2013.32031

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine four urovirulence factors (UVFs) and their phylogenetic classes and compare their levels of resistance to antimicrobial drug classes in 159 canine uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) isolates submitted to the Clinical bacteriology and Mycology Laboratory of The University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center in 2007. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the following UVFs: cytotoxic necrotizing factor (cnf), hemolysin (hly), S-fimbrial adhesion gene (sfa), and Pilus associated with pyelonephritis gene G allele III (pap); polymerase chain reaction was used to determine phylogenetic group. In vitro susceptibility to antimicrobial classes was evaluated, and resistance was compared to UVF presence as well as phylogenetic class. UVFs were presented in 48% of UPEC and were negatively correlated with antimicrobial resistance. Of the 159 samples, the number of UVFs expressed per isolate was 0 = 82 (52%), 1 = 24 (15%), 2 = 2 (1%), 3 = 18 (11%), and 4 = 33 (21%). The following UVFs were expressed: sfa (33%), hly (24%), cnf (25%), and pap (18%). Presence of all four UVFs, hly, cnf, and sfa together, and sfa alone, was associated with less resistance (P P the highest in class A (P the lowest in B2 (P

Highlights

Urinary tract infections occur commonly in dogs and affect approximately 14% of dogs presented to veterinarians [1]
The purpose of this study was to examine four urovirulence factors (UVFs) and their phylogenetic classes and compare their levels of resistance to antimicrobial drug classes in 159 canine uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) isolates submitted to the Clinical bacteriology and Mycology Laboratory of The University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center in 2007
We chose to evaluate hly, cnf, sfa, and pap because a previous study showed an increased incidence of these UVFs in UPEC when compared to fecal E. coli, suggesting they may play a role in urovirulence [5]

Summary

Introduction

Urinary tract infections occur commonly in dogs and affect approximately 14% of dogs presented to veterinarians [1]. In two such infections, cystitis and pyelonephritis, Escherichia coli is the most prevalent associated pathogen, accounting for 41% to 51% of cases in dogs [1,2,3,4]. Several urovirulence factors (UVFs) have been associated with canine uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), including adhesion-encoding operons (pilus associated with pyelonephritis gene G allele III [pap]), s-fimbrial adhesion gene [sfa]), hemolysin (hly), cytotoxic necrotizing factor (cnf), and aerobactin (aer) [5,6,7]. In another study evaluating 50 canine UPEC isolates, the most common UVFs isolated were type I pilus (92%), pap (54%), sfa (54%), hly (54%), and cnf (52%) [5].

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