Within-sample and between-sample variation of antimicrobial resistance in fecal Escherichia coli isolates from pigs.
ABSTRACT The present study was initiated to evaluate the effect of sampling time and within-sample variability on the diversity in antimicrobial resistance patterns in fecal Escherichia coli from healthy pigs. Isolates were tested against 11 antimicrobials. A total of 25 different profiles were observed, involving resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, and/or a trimethoprim/sulfonamide combination. No isolates were resistant to enrofloxacin, gentamicin, or chloramfenicol, whereas resistance against neomycin and nalidixic acid was sporadically detected in isolates from grower pigs. A model that clusters pigs within-sampling time as a repeated factor and clusters isolates within individual pigs as a random factor was used. For sows, the variance component ratio of sampling time to residuals was 0.28-0.56 for the different antimicrobials (except ampicillin) and 0.85-1.79 for grower pigs. The variance components for within-sample variation were zero or close to zero, except in isolates from sows where resistance to ampicillin explained 14.8 times more of the variation compared to residuals. Thus, the effect of an animal's status at a given sampling time was more influential on the variability in antimicrobial resistance than within-animal diversity. We conclude that repeated sampling and analysis of one isolate per animal each time may be preferable for screening general tendencies, whereas several isolates have to be tested when individual animals are focused.
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ABSTRACT: Aims: Escherichia coli O157 is considered to be one of most important human pathogens of animal origin which causes serious clinical complications. One of the most common methods to isolate E. coli O157 is the immunomagnetic separation (IMS) technique which employs specific antibodies coupled to magnetic beads to bind and extract cells from enrichment broths followed by plating onto sorbitol MacConkey agar supplemented with cefixime and potassium tellurite (CT-SMAC) plates. The aim of this study was to determine strain variation by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) among E. coli O157 on IMS/CT-SMAC plates.Methods and Results: Every suspect colony of E. coli O157 was tested following isolation by the IMS/CT-SMAC technique. From 124 colonies detected; six XbaI-PFGE profiles were identified.Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that mixed populations of E. coli O157 with distinguishable PFGE profiles that are simultaneously present in bovine faeces can be isolated with IMS/CT-SMAC technique.Significance and Impact of the Study: If the aim of the study was to analyse diversity of PFGE profiles of E. coli O157 in a faecal sample following isolation by the IMS/CT-SMAC technique, at least five colonies per sample should be analysed to detect different PFGE subtypes if present.Letters in Applied Microbiology 12/2006; 44(1):19 - 23. · 1.63 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Because antimicrobial resistance in food-producing animals is a major public health concern, many countries have implemented antimicrobial monitoring systems at a national level. When designing a sampling scheme for antimicrobial resistance monitoring, it is necessary to consider both cost effectiveness and statistical plausibility. In this study, we examined how sampling scheme precision and sensitivity can vary with the number of animals sampled from each farm, while keeping the overall sample size constant to avoid additional sampling costs. Five sampling strategies were investigated. These employed 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 animal samples per farm, with a total of 12 animals sampled in each strategy. A total of 1,500 Escherichia coli isolates from 300 fattening pigs on 30 farms were tested for resistance against 12 antimicrobials. The performance of each sampling strategy was evaluated by bootstrap resampling from the observational data. In the bootstrapping procedure, farms, animals, and isolates were selected randomly with replacement, and a total of 10,000 replications were conducted. For each antimicrobial, we observed that the standard deviation and 2.5-97.5 percentile interval of resistance prevalence were smallest in the sampling strategy that employed 1 animal per farm. The proportion of bootstrap samples that included at least 1 isolate with resistance was also evaluated as an indicator of the sensitivity of the sampling strategy to previously unidentified antimicrobial resistance. The proportion was greatest with 1 sample per farm and decreased with larger samples per farm. We concluded that when the total number of samples is pre-specified, the most precise and sensitive sampling strategy involves collecting 1 sample per farm.PLoS ONE 01/2014; 9(1):e87147. · 3.53 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Cattle shedding at least 104 CFU Escherichia coli O157:H7/g feces are described as super-shedders and have been shown to increase transmission of E. coli O157:H7 to other cattle in feedlots. This study investigated relationships among fecal isolates from super-shedders (n = 162), perineal hide swab isolates (PS) from super-shedders (n = 137) and fecal isolates from low-shedder (< 104 CFU/g feces) pen-mates (n = 496) using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). A subsample of these fecal isolates (n = 474) was tested for antimicrobial resistance. Isolates of E. coli O157:H7 were obtained from cattle in pens (avg. 181 head) at 2 commercial feedlots in southern Alberta with each steer sampled at entry to the feedlot and prior to slaughter. RESULTS: Only 1 steer maintained super-shedder status at both samplings, although approximately 30% of super-shedders in sampling 1 had low-shedder status at sampling 2. A total of 85 restriction endonuclease digestion clusters (REPC; 90% or greater similarity) and 86 unique isolates (< 90% similarity) were detected, with the predominant REPC (30% of isolates) being isolated from cattle in all feedlot pens, although it was not associated with shedding status (super- or low-shedder; P = 0.94). Only 2/21 super-shedders had fecal isolates in the same REPC at both samplings. Fecal and PS isolates from individual super-shedders generally belonged to different REPCs, although fecal isolates of E. coli O157:H7 from super- and low-shedders showed greater similarity (P < 0.001) than those from PS. For 77% of super-shedders, PFGE profiles of super-shedder fecal and PS isolates were distinct from all low-shedder fecal isolates collected in the same pen. A low level of antimicrobial resistance (3.7%) was detected and prevalence of antimicrobial resistance did not differ among super- and low-shedder isolates (P = 0.69), although all super-shedder isolates with antimicrobial resistance (n = 3) were resistant to multiple antimicrobials. CONCLUSIONS: Super-shedders did not have increased antimicrobial resistance compared to low-shedder pen mates. Our data demonstrated that PFGE profiles of individual super-shedders varied over time and that only 1/162 steers remained a super-shedder at 2 samplings. In these two commercial feedlots, PFGE subtypes of E. coli O157:H7 from fecal isolates of super- and low-shedders were frequently different as were subtypes of fecal and perineal hide isolates from super-shedders.BMC Veterinary Research 09/2012; 8(1):178. · 1.74 Impact Factor