Abstract: The emergence and global distribution of the mcr-1 gene for colistin resistance have become a public concern because of threats to the role of colistin as the last line of defense against some bacteria. Because of the prevalence of mcr-1-positive Escherichia coli isolates in food animals, production of these animals has been regarded as one of the major sources of amplification and spread of mcr-1. In this study, 249 E. coli isolates were recovered from 300 fecal samples collected from swine farms in Heilongjiang Province, People's Republic of China. Susceptibility testing revealed that 186 (74.70%) of these isolates were colistin resistant, and 86 were positive for mcr-1. The mcr-1-positive isolates had extensive antimicrobial resistance profiles and additional resistance genes, including blaTEM, blaCTX-M, aac3-IV, tet(A), floR, sul1, sul2, sul3, and oqxAB. No mutations in genes pmrAB and mgrB were associated with colistin resistance. Phylogenetic group analysis revealed that the mcr-1-positive E. coli isolates belonged to groups A (52.33% of isolates), B1 (33.72%), B2 (5.81%), and D (8.14%). The prevalence of the virulence-associated genes iutA, iroN, fimH, vat, ompA, and traT was moderate. Seven mcr-1-positive isolates were identified as extraintestinal pathogenic. Among 20 mcr-1-positive E. coli isolates, multilocus sequence typing revealed that sequence type 10 was the most common (five isolates). The conjugation assays revealed that the majority of mcr-1 genes were transferable at frequencies of 7.05 × 10-7 to 7.57 × 10-4. The results of this study indicate the need for monitoring and minimizing the further dissemination of mcr-1 among E. coli isolates in food animals, particularly swine.
Keywords: Escherichia coli; mcr-1; Antimicrobial resistance; Porcine fecal samples; Virulence genes.
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