Antimicrobial resistance and integron gene cassette arrays in commensal Escherichia coli from human and animal sources in IRI. Issue 1 (December 2016) - Kheiri, Roohollah
Abstract Background The human and animal intestinal tract harbors a complex community of microbes which enables bacteria to inherit antibiotic resistance genes. The aims of this study were to investigate clonality, antimicrobial resistance, prevalence and gene cassette arrays of class I and II integrons among commensalEscherichia coli from human and animals. Methods A total of 200E. coli isolates from human, chicken, cattle, and sheep were isolated followed by phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing and detection of class I and II integrons gene cassettes arrays. The clonal relationship of the isolates were analyzed by (GTG)5 -PCR. Results Of 200 isolates, 136 isolates were multi drug resistance (MDR) including 47, 40, 31 and 18 isolates from chicken, human, cattle and sheep, respectively. Class I integron was detected in 50, 38, 6 and 16 %, while class II was detected in 26, 8, 0 and 4 % of chicken, human, cattle and sheep isolates, respectively. Variable regions were amplified and sequenced. Cassette arrays in class I integrons were:dfrA1, dfrA5, dfrA7, dfrA12, aadA1, dfrA17 aadA1, aadA22, aadB –aadA2 anddfrA12 –orfF –aadA2, and for class II, dfrA1 -sat -aadA1, andsat -sat1 -aadA1 were detected. Six class I and three class II positive strains did not produce any amplicons for variable region. Integron-positive isolates showed higher rate of resistance to streptomycin and trimethoprim–sulphamethoxazole, especially in chicken isolates which were fed antibiotics. Low similarity and great genetic diversity of class I and II integrons carrying isolates indicated no clonal relation. Conclusions Integrons encoding for antibiotic resistance are significantly present among non-pathogenic commensalE. coli, especially from the hosts medicated by antibiotics. Uncontrolled use of antibiotics will increase the numbers of multiple drug resistant isolates and integrons prevalence.