Comparisons of microbiological characteristics and antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from urban rodents, shrews, and healthy people

Abstract

Background: The comparisons of molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) isolates from humans and other animal hosts are not well studied. Our goal was to compare the molecular epidemiology of KP strains that were isolated from urban rodents, shrews, and healthy people.Results: K. pneumoniae (KP) isolates were isolated from fecal samples of rodents, shrews and healthy adults in 2015 in southern China. In total, 465 fecal samples were collected, of which 85 from rodents, 105 from shrews, and 275 from healthy adults. Antimicrobial susceptibility and production of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) of the isolates were tested. PCR-based methods were used to detect specific genes, including ESBL genes (bla TEM , bla SHV, and bla CTX-M ) in ESBL-producing isolates, capsular serotypes (K1, K2, K5, K20, K54, and K57) in hypervirulent KPs (hvKPs), and virulence genes (magA, wcaG, rmpA, uge, kfu, and aerobactin) in hvKP isolates. Multilocus sequence type (MLST) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were performed to exclude the homology of these isolates. The carriage rate of KP in urban rodents and shrews (78.42%) was higher than that in healthy adults (66.18%) (χ 2 = 8.206, P = 0.004). The prevalence rates of ESBL-producing isolates among rodents, shrews, and humans were 7.94, 12.79, and 17.03%, respectively. The positive rates of CTX-M, TEM and SHV types in ESBL-producing isolates were 29.79, 27.66, and 17.02%, respectively. Serotype K1, K5, K20, and K57 were detected in both small mammals and humans. PFGE typing revealed thirty-six clusters. PFGE cluster A was clustered by samples of shrews and healthy adult, with a similarity of 88.4%. MLST typing revealed thirty-eight types. ST23 and ST35 were detected in samples of shrews and healthy adults. ST37 was detected in samples of 2 rodents and a healthy adult.Conclusions: Overlapping serotypes of hvKP were observed in both the animals and humans. The same PFGE or MLST types were also found in isolates derived humans, rodents and shrews. Therefore, urban rodents and shrews might play a certain role in the transmission of drug-resistant and hypervirulent KP.

Epidemiology, Environmental Risks, Virulence, and Resistance Determinants of Klebsiella pneumoniae From Dairy Cows in Hubei, China

“…At present, the hvKP was reported to be most common in K. pneumoniae with ST11, serotype K1 or K2 ( Wang et al, 2021 ). No strains of these serotypes and sequence types were found in this study, but K54 ( wzi 66, wzi 115, n = 2) and K57 ( wzi 57, n = 1) were found, which may also be related to high virulence ( Zhong et al, 2020 ). The genetic diversity of K. pneumoniae is very rich and its serotypes and sequence types are not in a one-to-one correspondence, which is similar to previous studies ( Benulič et al, 2020 ; Lepuschitz et al, 2020 ).…”

One Health Genomic Study of Human and Animal Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolated at Diagnostic Laboratories on a Small Caribbean Island

“…Among the other three STs found in vervets, ST37 was also isolated from two cases of human infection: one urinary tract infection and one case of sepsis. ST37 is a common lineage in humans, frequently associated with ESBL-production, and has been previously found in animals [ 31 , 32 , 33 ], but in our study they did not carry any genes encoding ESBL. However, vervet and human ST37 isolates from this study clustered separately in the phylogeny and harbored different antimicrobial resistance genes, though all lacked virulence genes ( Figure 1 ).…”

Determination of multidrug-resistant populations and molecular characterization of complex Klebsiella spp. in wild animals by multilocus sequence typing

“…K. pneumoniae ST35 is an MDR clone and has been identified in humans from several countries [33,36,37]. It is also found in feces, milk from [id: 3084, id: 13421), broiler and turkey in Norway [38], urban rodents in China [39], and wastewater in Romania [40]. In addition, the ST1948 strain was described in blood isolate from a hospital in Taiwan and Laos [12,41] and found in crows in Italy (id:13729).…”