Clonal relationship among atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strains isolated from different animal species and humans.
Forty-nine typical and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains belonging to different serotypes and isolated from humans, pets (cats and dogs), farm animals (bovines, sheep, and rabbits), and wild animals (monkeys) were investigated for virulence markers and clonal similarity by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The virulence markers analyzed revealed that atypical EPEC strains isolated from animals have the potential to cause diarrhea in humans. A close clonal relationship between human and animal isolates was found by MLST and PFGE. These results indicate that these animals act as atypical EPEC reservoirs and may represent sources of infection for humans. Since humans also act as a reservoir of atypical EPEC strains, the cycle of mutual infection of atypical EPEC between animals and humans, mainly pets and their owners, cannot be ruled out since the transmission dynamics between the reservoirs are not yet clearly understood.
Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Avenida Prof. Lineu Prestes 1374, 05508-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Rodrigo A
RA
Moura
Marcelo P
MP
Sircili
Luciana
L
Leomil
Maria Helena
MH
Matté
Luiz R
LR
Trabulsi
Waldir P
WP
Elias
Kinue
K
Irino
Antonio F
AF
Pestana de Castro
D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000382:microbiology*; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000382:microbiology*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001938:Brazil; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D054308:Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012703:Serotyping; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors