Escherichia coliisolated from feces of brown bears(Ursus arctos)have a lower prevalence of human extraintestinal pathogenicE. colivirulence-associated genes.
Eighty-sixEscherichia colistrains from feces of either wild brown bears or those living in a zoo were screened for phylogenetic groups using the revisited Clermont phylotyping method and the prevalence of 24 virulence-associated genes (VAGs) of extraintestinal pathogenicE. coli(ExPEC). Our results showed that most strains ofE. coliin bears belonged to phylogenetic groups III/IV/V (29%) and B1 (26%). Only half of the tested VAGs were found in theE. colibear strains, withfimHpresent in 72%,ompTin 63%, andkpsMTin 43% of the strains. When the data obtained on the fecalE. colistrains from brown bears were compared with the data obtained on 90 fecalE. colistrains from healthy humans, there were significant differences inE. colipopulation structures between both hosts.
Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maruša
M
Vadnov
Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Damjana
D
Barbič
Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Darja
D
Žgur-Bertok
Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Marjanca Starčič
MS
Erjavec
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D000836:Animals, Zoo; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D001503:Ursidae / Q000382:microbiology*; D014774:Virulence