Canine Feces as a Reservoir of Extraintestinal PathogenicEscherichia coli

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To test the canine reservoir hypothesis of extraintestinal pathogenicEscherichia coli(ExPEC), 63 environmental canine fecal deposits were evaluated for the presence of ExPEC by a combination of selective culturing, extended virulence genotyping, hemagglutination testing, O serotyping, and PCR-based phylotyping. Overall, 30% of canine fecal samples (56% of those that yielded viableE. coli) containedpapG-positiveE. coli, usually as the predominantE. colistrain and always possessingpapGallele III (which encodes variant III of the P-fimbrial adhesin molecule PapG). Multiple other virulence-associated genes typical of human ExPEC were prevalent among the canine fecal isolates. According to serotyping, virulence genotyping, and random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, over 50% ofpapG-positive fecalE. colicould be directly correlated with specific human clinical isolates from patients with cystitis, pyelonephritis, bacteremia, or meningitis, including archetypal human ExPEC strains 536, CP9, and RS218. Five canine fecal isolates and (clonally related) archetypal human pyelonephritis isolate 536 were found to share a novel allele ofpapA(which encodes the P-fimbrial structural subunit PapA). These data confirm that ExPEC representing known virulent clones are highly prevalent in canine feces, which consequently may provide a reservoir of ExPEC for acquisition by humans.

This publication has 84 references indexed in Scilit: