Genetic characteristics, antimicrobial resistance, and prevalence of Arcobacter spp. isolated from various sources in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

Arcobacter spp. is a globally emerging zoonotic and foodborne pathogen. However, little is known about its prevalence and antimicrobial resistance in China. To investigate the prevalence of Arcobacter spp. isolated from various sources, 396 samples were collected from human feces, chicken cecum, and food specimens including chicken meat, beef, pork, lettuce, and seafood. Arcobacter spp. was isolated by the membrane filtration method. For 92 strains, the agar dilution method and next-generation sequencing were used to investigate their antimicrobial resistance and to obtain whole genome data, respectively. The virulence factor database (VFDB) was queried to identify virulence genes. ResFinder and the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) were used to predict resistance genes. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using the maximum likelihood (ML) method with core single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We found that 27.5% of the samples (n = 109) were positive for Arcobacter spp., comprising Arcobacter butzleri (53.0%), Arcobacter cryaerophilus (39.6%), and Arcobacter skirrowii (7.4%). Chicken meat had the highest prevalence (81.2%), followed by seafood (51.9%), pork (43.3%), beef (36.7%), lettuce (35.5%), chicken cecum (8%), and human fecal samples (0%, 0/159). Antimicrobial susceptibility tests revealed that 51 A. butzleri and 40 A. cryaerophilus strains were resistant to streptomycin (98.1, 70%), clindamycin (94.1, 90%), tetracycline (64.7, 52.5%), azithromycin (43.1%, 15%), nalidixic acid (33.4, 35%), and ciprofloxacin (31.3, 35%) but were susceptible to erythromycin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, telithromycin, and clindamycin (≤10%). A. skirrowii was sensitive to all experimental antibiotics. The virulence factors tlyA, mviN, cj1349, ciaB, and pldA were carried by all Arcobacter spp. strains at 100%, and the following percentages were cadF (95.7%), iroE (23.9%), hecB (2.2%), hecA, and irgA (1.1%). Only one A. butzleri strain (F061-2G) carried a macrolide resistance gene (ereA). One A. butzleri and one A. cryaerophilus harbored resistance island gene clusters, which were isolated from pork and chicken. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus, and A. skirrowii were separated from each other. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the isolation of Arcobacter spp. from vegetables and seafood in China. The resistance island gene cluster found in pork and chicken meat and the presence of virulence factors could be a potential risk to human health.

Genomic diversity and taxonomic marker for Arcobacter species

“…In this study, 371 Arcobacter genomes were used, out of which 172 were obtained from strains sequenced by our laboratory or collaborating institutions. The isolation, cultivation, genomic DNA extraction, and sequencing of these strains were described in previous publications ( Wang et al, 2021 ; Ma et al, 2022 ; Zhou et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, genomes of Arcobacter identified at the species level were investigated, 172 of which were obtained in our earlier studies (70 A. butzleri , 81 A. cryaerophilus , 19 A. skirrowii , and 2 A. lacus ), and the others from the public databases.…”

A longitudinal study to examine the influence of farming practices and environmental factors on pathogen prevalence using structural equation modeling

“…Similarly, Arcobacter spp., which belong to the family Campylobacteraceae are classified as a serious hazard to human health by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) ( Hoa et al, 2006 ; Ramees et al, 2017 ). Recently, Arcobacter prevalence was reported in fresh produce ( Abay et al, 2022 , Ma et al, 2022 ), and they are widely distributed among animals and environmental water ( Collado and Figueras, 2011 ; Ramees et al, 2017 ; Niedermeyer et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, Arcobacter spp.…”

Virulence genotype and phenotype of two clinical isolates of Arcobacter butzleri obtained from patients with different pathologies

“…has been determined by the detection of ten virulence markers: cadF and cj1349 , which encode fibronectin binding proteins that promote the binding of bacteria to intestinal cells (Dasti et al 2010 ; Konkel et al 2005 ); ciaB ( Campylobacter invasive antigen B), which contributes to host cell invasion through a secretion system (Konkel et al 1999 ); hecA , involved in attachment, aggregation and epidermal cell killing (Rojas et al 2002 ); hecB and tlyA , coding for a haemolysin activation protein and a haemolysin, respectively (Miller et al 2007 ; Wren et al 1998 ); the phospholipase encoding gene pldA , also associated with erythrocyte lysis (Istivan et al 2008 ); mviN , coding for a protein essential for peptidoglycan biosynthesis (Inoue et al 2008 ); and irgA and iroE , that code for functional components for iron acquisition and are required for establishing and maintaining infection (Goldberg et al 1990 ). However, whole genome sequencing (WGS) has proven to be a useful technique to further expand knowledge about Arcobacter, and several studies have focused on using it to provide more information (Buzzanca et al 2021 ; Fanelli et al 2019 ; Isidro et al 2020 ; Ma et al 2022 ; Miller et al 2007 ; Müller et al 2020a , b ). It should be noted that although the first genome of A. butzleri was sequenced and analysed several years ago (Miller et al 2007 ), until 2020, no comprehensive genome-scale comparative analysis of A. butzleri has been performed (Buzzanca et al 2021 ; Isidro et al 2020 ; Müller et al 2020a , b ).…”