Molecular epidemiology of dairy cattle-associated Escherichia coli carrying blaCTX-M genes in Washington State

Abstract

An increase in the prevalence of commensal Escherichia coli carrying blaCTX-M genes among dairy cattle was observed between 2008 and 2012 in Washington State. To study the molecular epidemiology of this change, we selected 126 blaCTX-M-positive and 126 blaCTX-M-negative isolates for determinations of the multilocus sequence types (MLSTs) and antibiotic resistance phenotypes from E. coli obtained during a previous study. For 99 isolates, we also determined the blaCTX-M alleles using PCR and sequencing and identified the replicon types of blaCTX-Mcarrying plasmids. The blaCTX-M-negative E. coli isolates comprised 76 sequence types (STs) compared with 32 STs in blaCTX-M-positive E. coli isolates. The blaCTX-M-positive E. coli isolates formed three MLST clonal complexes, accounting for 83% of these isolates; 52% of blaCTX-M-negative E. coli isolates clustered into 10 clonal complexes, and the remainder were singletons. Overall, blaCTX-M-negative E. coli isolates had more diverse genotypes that were distinct to farms, whereas blaCTX-M-positive E. coli isolates had a clonal population structure and were widely disseminated on farms in both regions included in the study. Plasmid replicon types included IncI1 which predominated, followed by IncFIB and IncFIA/FIB. blaCTX-M-15 was the predominant CTX-M gene allele, followed by blaCTX-M-27 and blaCTX-M-14. There was no significant association between plasmid replicon types and bacterial STs, and neither clonal complexes nor major plasmid groups were associated with two discrete dairyfarming regions of Washington State.