Summary
The phenomenon of resistance of Escherichia coli strains in
free-living animals has been constantly expanding in recent years.
However, the data is still fragmented and, due to the growing threat to
public health, there is a constant need to search for and analyse new
reservoirs and indicate their role and importance in the circulation of
resistance genes. Therefore, the target group in this study were
free-living non-predatory animals as reservoirs of drug-resistant and
potentially virulent E. coli strains. For isolation, we used a
combination of selective media with four antimicrobials. After
additional two-stage analysis of strain similarity, we obtained 70
different isolates, including 71.4% of multidrug-resistant strains. In
strains isolated from all species of animals, we determined high
resistance to ampicillin (95.7%), tetracycline (64.3%), streptomycin
(51.4%), and chloramphenicol (38.6%). Every third of the E.
coli -positive individual was a carrier of more than one resistant
clone. Moreover, four isolates among the resistant strains had the ExPEC
pathotype, two had the ETEC pathotype, and another two represented EHEC.
Our study confirmed that not only free-living predatory animals are
reservoirs of resistance but also many synanthropic species of
herbivores and omnivores contribute substantially to the spread of
resistant and virulent E. coli strains.
Keywords : ADSRRS fingerprinting, antimicrobial resistance,Escherichia coli , wildlife omnivores and herbivores,
virulence-associated genes