title: Diversity of STs, plasmids and ESBL genes among Escherichia coli from humans, animals and food in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to compare ESBL-producing Escherichia coli causing infections in humans with infecting or commensal isolates from animals and isolates from food of animal origin in terms of the strain types, the ESBL gene present and the plasmids that carry the respective ESBL genes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A collection of 353 ESBL-positive E. coli isolates from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany were studied by MLST and ESBL genes were identified. Characterization of ESBL gene-carrying plasmids was performed using PCR-based replicon typing. Moreover, IncI1-Iγ and IncN plasmids were characterized by plasmid MLST.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ESBL-producing E. coli represented 158 different STs with ST131, ST10 and ST88 being the most common. Overall, blaCTX-M-1 was the most frequently detected ESBL gene, followed by blaCTX-M-15, which was the most common ESBL gene in the human isolates. The most common plasmid replicon type overall was IncI1-Iγ followed by multiple IncF replicons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ESBL genes were present in a wide variety of E. coli STs. IncI1-Iγ plasmids that carried the blaCTX-M-1 gene were widely disseminated amongst STs in isolates from animals and humans, whereas other plasmids and STs appeared to be more restricted to isolates from specific hosts.
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, London, UK michaela.day@phe.gov.uk.
authors.forename: Michaela J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Day
authors.affiliation: Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany University Hospital Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria (IRYCIS), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alieda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Essen-Zandbergen
authors.affiliation: Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dierikx
authors.affiliation: Institute of Farm Animal Genetics, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Neustadt-Mariensee, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kadlec
authors.affiliation: Institute of Farm Animal Genetics, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Neustadt-Mariensee, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Schink
authors.affiliation: Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA, Weybridge), Addlestone, UK.
authors.forename: Guanghui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, London, UK.
authors.forename: Marie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Chattaway
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, London, UK.
authors.forename: Vivienne
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: DoNascimento
authors.affiliation: University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wain
authors.affiliation: Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Helmuth
authors.affiliation: Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.affiliation: Institute of Farm Animal Genetics, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Neustadt-Mariensee, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, London, UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Threlfall
authors.affiliation: The University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, UK.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Woodward
authors.affiliation: Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA, Weybridge), Addlestone, UK.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Coldham
authors.affiliation: Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mevius
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, London, UK.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Woodford
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000662:veterinary*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D009426:Netherlands; D010957:Plasmids / Q000032:analysis*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D006113:United Kingdom; D001618:beta-Lactamases / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C034151:heat stable toxin (E coli); D001618:beta-Lactamases