Abstract
Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) are pathovars of E. coli that impact human health by causing childhood diseases. In this work, 118 synanthropic rodents of the genus Rattus from Buenos Aires, Argentina were evaluated as EPEC and STEC carriers. Rectal swab samples from captured animals were evaluated by conventional PCR to detect the presence of the eae, stx1, stx2, and rfbO157 genes. Twenty-one isolates were obtained (17 EPEC isolates from seven animals and four STEC isolates from the same animal). All EPEC isolates tested negative for the presence of the bfpA gene. One EPEC isolate carried the iha gene, and five EPEC isolates carried the toxB gene. STEC isolates exhibited two different virulence profiles: stx1a/stx2a/stx2c/stx2d/saa/ehxA/subA (3/4) and stx1a/stx2a/saa/ehxA/subA (1/4). EPEC isolate serotypes included O109:H46 (7), O71:H40 (4), O71:NM (2), O138:H40 (1), O108:H21 (1), O88:H25 (1), and O76:NM (1), and STEC isolates belonged to the O108:H11 (4) serotype. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out, and resistance to tetracycline was observed in one EPEC strain. Our results demonstrate that Rattus spp. may act as carriers of EPEC and STEC strains and may be involved in the epidemiology of diarrheal disease in infancy.
Highlights
Escherichia coli is a microorganism belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family, whose habitat is the intestines of various animal species including humans
We evaluated the presence of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) strains in rodents of the genus Rattus
A higher proportion of EPEC strains were found among R. rattus specimens; this result is similar to a previous finding by our group (Rumi et al, 2012)
Summary
Escherichia coli is a microorganism belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family, whose habitat is the intestines of various animal species including humans. Three clinical syndromes can result from infection with different E. coli pathovars: diarrheagenic disease, urinary tract infections, and sepsis/meningitis (Nataro and Kaper, 1998). Some E. coli pathovars that produce diarrheagenic disease cause histological lesions known as attaching and effacing (A/E) lesions in the gut mucosa of human and animal hosts (Nataro and Kaper, 1998). The formation of A/E lesions involves both plasmid and chromosomal genes that are encoded in a pathogenicity island known as the locus for enterocyte effacement (LEE) (McDaniel et al, 1995). The eae gene is present in the LEE and encodes intimin, an adhesin that mediates an intimate connection between the bacterium and the enterocyte, causing localized destruction of microvilli and the formation of an actinrich pedestal-like structure on the apical cell membrane (Wales et al, 2005)
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