Distribution of the usp Gene in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Isolated from Companion Animals and Correlation with Serotypes and Size‐Variations of the Pathogenicity Island

Abstract

Escherichia coli is a major causative agent of uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) and these strains are designated as uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). UTI occurs not only among humans, but is also observed in companion animals such as dogs and cats (7). Although the etiological bacterial agents of UTI are diverse, E. coli is the chief causative pathogen in dogs and cats suffering from UTI of bacterial origin. UTI caused by E. coli has been associated with urogenital disease such as cystitis, nephritis, metritis and prostatitis in dogs and cats (7). Seven virulence factors (VFs), including type 1 pilus (pil), pilus associated with pyelonephritis (pap), S fimbriae (sfa), afimbrial adhesin I (afaI), hemolysin (hly), aerobactin (aer) and cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (cnfI) have been documented to play an important role in causing human UTI (2). Several serotypes such as O1, O2, O4, O6, O8, O16, O18, O22, O25 and O75 are preferentially associated with UPEC strains and each of the uropathogenic virulence factors is significantly associated with these serotypes (1,6,8). E. coli strains isolated from dogs and cats with UTI have high prevalence of hly and clustered in 5 serotypes including O2, O4, O6, O7 and O18 (7). These serotypes except for O7 are shared with human UPEC strains. Further, E. coli strains isolated from dogs and cats with UTI were similar to E. coli strains isolated from human UTI (4, 10, 11). These findings suggest that similar E. coli strains might be 797 Microbiol. Immunol., 47(10), [797][798][799][800][801][802] 2003 Editor-Communicated Paper Abstract: Uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is a serious problem not only among humans but also in companion animals such as dogs and cats. The uropathogenic specific protein gene (usp) is preferentially distributed in UPEC isolates from dogs and cats compared with the distribution of usp in E. coli strains from feces of healthy dogs and cats and this pattern of distribution resembles that observed in human UPEC strains. The UPEC strains from companion animals share common O serotypes like O1, O2, O4, O6, O16, O18, O22, O25 and O75 as those reported for human UPEC. The size variation of the pathogenicity island that includes usp in UPEC from dogs and cats was almost similar to those seen in human UPEC. We propose that dogs and cats are the alternative reservoirs for UPEC strains that are associated with human UTI. Distribution of the usp Gene in Uropathogenic

(CGG) 4 -Based PCR as a Novel Tool for Discrimination of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains: Comparison with Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus-PCR

“…We also assessed the distribution of six VFs, including those specific for UPEC strains. Multiplex-PCR let us identify fragments of genes encoding S fimbriae (sfaD/sfaE), P fimbriae (papC), ␣-hemolysin (hlyA), cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (cnf1), and uropathogenic-specific protein (usp), as well as the fimG/fimH region encoding subunits of type 1 fimbriae commonly present in other E. coli pathotypes (7,21,22,27). We identified two major groups of E. coli in our collection of strains.…”

Virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance of escherichia coli isolated from urinary tract of swine in southern of Brazil

“…The presence of usp gene in dog and cat E. coli isolates permitted the proposition of the role these animals as an alternative reservoir for human UTI (14,15). In contrast, we amplified usp in one E. coli isolated and this may suggest genotypic differences among swine and human urinary E. coli isolates.…”

“…In humans, the disease is associated to many virulence factors present in the uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), including haemolysin, aerobactin, adhesins, serum resistance, cytotoxic necrotizing factor (CNF), capsule production and uropathogenic-specific protein (14,15,21). E. coli adhesion to host cells is important to bacteria infection and persistence in urinary fluxes (6,10).…”

“…The primers and PCR conditions were previously described (1,2,4,7,12,15,16). Amplicons identities were confirmed by sequencing (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech).…”

Prevalence of ColE1-Like Plasmids and Colicin K Production among Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains and Quantification of Inhibitory Activity of Colicin K

“…To elicit infections, extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli strains, including UPEC, possess virulence factors. Therefore, the investigated UPEC strains were PCR screened for virulence factor sequences as described previously (14,20). As antimicrobial resistance is an increasing health problem, testing of susceptibility to antimicrobial agents was performed as described previously (26).…”