Abstract
Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) cause severe losses to the swine industry worldwide and uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are the main agent isolated from UTI in sows.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the virulence genes, assess the phylogenetic background, clonal diversity, and the pattern of resistance to antimicrobials in 186 isolates of UPEC isolated from sows in Brazil.Materials and methods: Urine samples from 300 sows of three herds with clinical signs from São Paulo State (Brazil) were screened for UTI; samples with suggestive results were submitted to bacterial isolation. E. coli strains isolated were characterized using disk diffusion technique, polymerase chain reaction and Single-enzyme amplification fragment length polymorphism (SE-AFLP).Results: Virulence genes focH and papC were present in 78.5% and 58% of strains, respectively, followed by cnf1 (23.2%), afa (13.4%), sfa (11.3%), iucD (6.9%), and hlyA (1.6%). No clonal relatedness was found by SE-AFLP. A total of 98% of isolates (182/186) were multidrug resistant, and the highest levels of resistance were to sulfonamides, tetracycline, florfenicol, and ampicillin. Isolates were classified in phylogenetic group B1 (34.4%), followed by D (33.9%), E (30.1%) and A (1.6%).Conclusions: The data obtained suggest that pigs from clinically affected herds may serve as a reservoir of uropathogenic and multidrug-resistant E. coli strains.
Highlights
Urinary tract infections cause severe losses to the swine industry worldwide, either due to therapeutic spending, early disposing of breeding sows, and acute death of severely affected sows (Drolet 2012)
Studies on the molecular epidemiology of Urinary tract infections (UTI) strains isolated in pigs are scarce
33.9% (63/186) belonged to phylogenetic groups D, group related to extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) strains isolated from humans
Summary
Urinary tract infections cause severe losses to the swine industry worldwide, either due to therapeutic spending, early disposing of breeding sows, and acute death of severely affected sows (Drolet 2012). The expression of virulence-encoding genes such as P (pap) and S (sfa) fimbriae allow UPEC to bind and invade host cells of the urinary tract, while iron chelator factors (siderophores) allow UPEC to capture host iron stores (Wiles et al 2008) The ability of these strains to produce toxins such as hemolysin (hlyA) and cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (cnf1) promote bacterial dissemination, releasing nutrients from the host and incapacitating immune effectors cells (Wiles et al 2008). Urinary tract infections (UTI) cause severe losses to the swine industry worldwide and uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are the main agent isolated from UTI in sows. Conclusions: The data obtained suggest that pigs from clinically affected herds may serve as a reservoir of uropathogenic and multidrug-resistant E. coli strains
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