Abstract
BackgroundExtraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) can cause a variety of infections outside the gastrointestinal tract in humans and animals. Infections due to swine ExPECs have been occurring with increasing frequency in China. These ExPECs may now be considered a new food-borne pathogen that causes cross-infections between humans and pigs. Knowledge of the clonal structure and virulence genes is needed as a framework to improve the understanding of phylogenetic traits of porcine ExPECs.ResultsMultilocus sequence typing (MLST) data showed that the isolates investigated in this study could be placed into four main clonal complexes, designated as CC10, CC1687, CC88 and CC58. Strains within CC10 were classified as phylogroup A, and these accounted for most of our porcine ExPEC isolates. Isolates in the CC1687 clonal complex, formed by new sequence types (STs), was classified as phylogroup D, with CC88 isolates considered as B2 and CC58 isolates as B1. Porcine ExPECs in these four clonal complexes demonstrated significantly different virulence gene patterns. A few porcine ExPECs were indentified in phylogroup B2, the phylogroup in which human ExPECs mainly exist. However some STs in the four clonal groups of porcine ExPECs were reported to cause extraintestinal infections in human, based on data in the MLST database.ConclusionPorcine ExPECs have different virulence gene patterns for different clonal complexes. However, these strains are mostly fell in phylogenentic phylogroup A, B1 and D, which is different from human ExPECs that concentrate in phylogroup B2. Our findings provide a better understanding relating to the clonal structure of ExPECs in diseased pigs and indicate a need to re-evaluate their contribution to human ExPEC diseases.
Highlights
Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) can cause a variety of infections outside the gastrointestinal tract in humans and animals
Fourteen sequence types (STs) from 30 strains were identified as new STs and designated ST1687, 1688, 1690, 1691, 1692, 1694, 1696–1702, and 1731
Further comparison of the porcine ExPECs with the entire Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) database indicated that CC46, CC206 and several singletons were derivatives of CC10, and that five singletons
Summary
Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) can cause a variety of infections outside the gastrointestinal tract in humans and animals. Infections due to swine ExPECs have been occurring with increasing frequency in China. These ExPECs may be considered a new food-borne pathogen that causes cross-infections between humans and pigs. Knowledge of the clonal structure and virulence genes is needed as a framework to improve the understanding of phylogenetic traits of porcine ExPECs. Escherichia coli (E. coli) are common bacteria that colonize the intestinal tract as normal flora and are known to cause a variety of diseases. Within the Chinese pig industry, porcine ExPEC diseases have become more prevalent.
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