Abstract
We studied the presence of the mobile colistin resistance gene mcr-1 in Escherichia coli isolates recovered from fecal and urine samples of companion animals, that were collected from South Korea in 2018 and 2019. The mcr-1 gene was detected in one colistin-resistant E. coli isolated from a diarrheic dog. The isolate exhibited additional resistance to multiple antimicrobials, including fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins. The mcr-1 carrying isolate belonged to ST160. The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern of our strain differed from those ST160 E. coli strains previously identified from chickens in Korea. The mcr-1 gene was identified in the IncI2 plasmid. It was also transferred to E. coli J53 recipient strain, with a conjugation efficiency of 2.8 × 10−4. Average nucleotide identity analysis demonstrated that the mcr-1-carrying plasmid in this study was closely related to those from patients in Korea. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mcr-1 carrying E. coli from a companion animal in South Korea. Our findings support One Health approach is necessary to prevent the dissemination of this high-risk gene.
Highlights
Colistin is the last-resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria
Escherichia coli plays an important role in colistin resistance because it is the main mcr gene carrier [4] and can be transferred among different animal hosts [5]
Plasmid-mediated mobile colistin resistance gene mcr-1 was observed in E. coli from humans [1,6,7], food [1,8] and companion animals [9,10,11] in other countries
Summary
Colistin is the last-resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The mcr genes code for phosphoethanolamine transferases which catalyze the attachment of phosphoethanolamine to lipopolysaccharides-lipid A in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This leads to a reduction of the negative charge of lipopolysaccharides upon structural alteration of lipid A and confers resistance to colistin [3]. Plasmid-mediated mobile colistin resistance gene mcr-1 was observed in E. coli from humans [1,6,7], food [1,8] and companion animals [9,10,11] in other countries. E. coli in livestock [12], the mcr-1 gene was reported in E. coli isolated from humans, food animals, and fresh vegetables [13,14,15].
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