Presence of Multidrug-Resistant <i>E. coli</i>, <i>Enterococcus</i> spp. and <i>Salmonella</i> spp. in Lakes and Fountains of Porto, Portugal

Abstract

Urban lakes and fountains provide recreational activities that could facilitate the contact between humans, animals and biological agents. The objective of this work was to assess the water quality and safety of 17 lakes and 13 fountains in the city of Porto (Portugal), by detecting the presence of Escherichia coli, enterococci and Salmonella spp., and analyzing their antimicrobial resistance. The mean number of E. coli colony forming units (CFU) was higher, both in lakes (2.67 × 10 3 CFU/100 ml) and fountains (3.52 × 10 2 CFU/100 ml), in comparison to enterococci counts: 5.60 × 10 2 and 4.10 × 10 CFU/100 ml, respectively. By screening a set of 26 multidrug-resistant E. coli (including seven ESBL-producing isolates) for virulence genes, we found strains carrying the fimH, chuA, cvaC, cnf1, hlyA, TSPE4.C2 and yjaA genes. Phylogenetic analyses have shown that the majority of E. coli strains belong to groups A and B1. Salmonella spp. was found in two lake water samples. Generally, the fecal contamination was notorious and worrisome, requiring preventive measures to minimize the negative impacts on human health. Finding the contamination source is definitely important so that interventions can be more effective.

Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in faecal enterococci from vet‐visiting pets and assessment of risk factors

“…The work from the North of Portugal on AMR of enterococci isolates from human beings, poultry and pets (Poeta and others 2006) was carried out with healthy animals, a possible reason for the lower AMR frequencies when compared with the ones herein obtained. The Porto region is known to have a high level of AM environment contamination (Flores and others 2013), a potential contribution for the present pool of animals to have higher AMR when compared with other previous studies.…”

“…In the univariable analysis, animals younger than two years old were at lower risk of being colonised by enterococci resistant to AMP, TET, CIP, ERY and AZM. This could be explained by the shorter period of time and fewer opportunities younger animals had to have AM treatments or to have contacted resistant genetic determinants from the environment, a well‐known source of acquisition of AMR determinants (Andersson and Hughes 2010, Martínez 2012, Flores and others 2013). This finding loses its power at the multivariable assessment, probably due to the low number of younger animals included (Table 2).…”

Occurrence of multidrug resistant Escherichia coli in groundwater of Brij region (Uttar Pradesh) and its public health implications

“…MDR (3-6 antimicrobials) was seen in 62.96% of E. coli isolates from drinking water [70]. The prevalence of multiple-antibiotic-resistant E. coli was observed in Dutch surface and waste water samples [71], Portugal fountains [72] and Romanian rivers [73]. A high incidence of ESBL E. coli has been reported by Doughari et al .…”

Phylogenetic Diversity, Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Virulence Characteristics of Escherichia coli Isolates from Pigeon Meat

“…Interestingly, this figure is lower than the prevalence found in the current study, in which the hly gene was detected in all the strains belonging to phylogenetic Group B2 and in 17.39% of the strains from Group B1. For their part, Flores et al [63] studied strains of E. coli isolated from lakes and springs in Portugal and found this gene in just a single strain belonging to Group B2.…”