Molecular Epidemiology of New Delhi Metallo- β-Lactamase-Producing Escherichia coli in Food-Producing Animals in China

Xu Kuang; Yan Zhang; Juan Liu; Run-Shi Yang; Zhi-Ying Qiu; Jian Sun; Xiao-Ping Liao; Ya-Hong Liu; Yang Yu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.912260

Molecular Epidemiology of New Delhi Metallo- β-Lactamase-Producing Escherichia coli in Food-Producing Animals in China

Front Microbiol. 2022 Jul 1:13:912260. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.912260. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xu Kuang^{1

2

3}, Yan Zhang^{1

2

3}, Juan Liu^{1

2

3}, Run-Shi Yang⁴, Zhi-Ying Qiu^{1

2

3}, Jian Sun^{1

2

3}, Xiao-Ping Liao^{1

2

3}, Ya-Hong Liu^{1

2

3

5}, Yang Yu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ National Risk Assessment Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance of Animal Original Bacteria, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmaceutics Development and Safety Evaluation, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
³ National Reference Laboratory of Veterinary Drug Residues, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Safety and Health, State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

We conducted a molecular surveillance study for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) colonization in food-producing animals in China that included primarily swine and poultry for three consecutive years. A total of 2,771 samples from food-producing animals and their surrounding environments were collected from different regions in China from 2015 to 2017. Enrichment cultures supplemented with meropenem were used to isolate carbapenem non-susceptible isolates and these were subsequently identified by MALDI-TOF MS. Resistance phenotypes and genotypes were confirmed using antimicrobial susceptibility testing and molecular biological techniques. Genomic characteristics of the carbapenemase-producing isolates were investigated using whole genome sequencing (WGS) and bioinformatic analysis. In total, 88 NDM-positive Enterobacteriaceae were identified from 2,771 samples and 96.6% were Escherichia coli. The New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)-positive E. coli displayed a diversity of sequence types (ST), and ST48 and ST165 were the most prevalent. Three variants of bla _NDM (bla _NDM-1, bla _NDM-4, and bla _NDM-5) were detected and WGS indicated that bla _NDM-5 predominated and was carried primarily on IncX3 plasmids. All these isolates were also multiply-drug resistant. These results revealed that food-producing animals in China are an important reservoir for NDM-positive E. coli and pose a potential threat to public health.

Keywords: NDM; antimicrobial resistance; epidemiology; food-producing animals; the environment.