First isolation of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter beijerinckii from an environmental sample.

Júlia Radó,Sándor Szoboszlay,Tibor Benedek,Balázs Kriszt,Edit Kaszab

doi:10.1556/030.66.2019.004

Júlia Radó, Sándor Szoboszlay + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1556/030.66.2019.004

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Abstract

The emergence of opportunistic Acinetobacter spp. in healthcare settings poses a significant threat to public health. The major reasons for nosocomial spread of these species are their abilities to develop and transfer drug resistance against various classes of antibiotics. Considering that Acinetobacter spp. are ubiquitous in nature, can utilize several carbon sources, and reach humans via various pathways, our aim was to obtain information about the environmental strains of this genus. Our first step was to develop and test a multistep isolation procedure based on traditional scientific methods. Antibiotic resistance patterns of the isolated strains were determined, as susceptibility to 12 antibiotics of 7 classes was tested by MIC Test Strip method. Altogether 366 samples (groundwater, surface water, and soil) of 24 sites were investigated and a collection of 37 Acinetobacter isolates was obtained. Among others, clinically important human pathogen Acinetobacter spp., such as A. baumannii, A. johnsonii, and A. gyllenbergii were identified. Three environmental strains were determined as multidrug-resistant including a carbapenem-resistant, hemolytic Acinetobacter beijerinckii strain isolated from a hydrocarbon-contaminated groundwater sample. In summary, it has been found that the applied multistep isolation procedure is applicable to isolate various species of Acinetobacter genus. Based on the antibiotic resistance assay, we can conclude that environmental representatives of Acinetobacter spp. are able to develop multidrug resistance, but at a lower rate than their clinical counterparts.

Highlights

The necessity of simultaneous investigations of environmental and clinical isolates of opportunistic species is a rising issue in our days, since pathways between clinical and non-clinical environments are both globally and locally opening
The multiple, parallel checks of examined media showed that our protocol is suitable for selective isolation of environmental Acinetobacter strains with a rate similar to other available procedures [13], but without the addition of antibiotics, as selective agents
This protocol can be recommended for other researchers for further testing and adaptation to reach a good detection rate of environmental acinetobacters with a decreasing rate of false identifications and/or with a negative effect on antibiotic resistance profiling

Summary

Introduction

The necessity of simultaneous investigations of environmental and clinical isolates of opportunistic species is a rising issue in our days, since pathways between clinical and non-clinical environments are both globally and locally opening. Acinetobacter strains of clinical and environmental habitats are still considered and examined in various ways. Acinetobacter species are ubiquitous in natural habitats (soil and water). Their presence was verified in the normal skin, throat, and rectal flora as well as in food and body lice [2]. The representatives of this genus can cause serious respiratory, urinary, and biliary tract infections; empyema; bacteremia; meningitis; endocarditis; burn infections; and wound sepsis [3, 4]. Infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii have been reported in the case of military personnel of combat regions such as Afghanistan or Iraq [6]

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