Prevalence and Characterization of Serratia marcescens Isolated from Clinical Bovine Mastitis Cases in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China

Zeyi Liang; Jiahao Shen; Jing Liu; Xu Sun; Yayuan Yang; Yanan Lv; Juanshan Zheng; Xiaoqing Mou; Hongsheng Li; Xuezhi Ding; Feng Yang

doi:10.2147/IDR.S408632

Prevalence and Characterization of Serratia marcescens Isolated from Clinical Bovine Mastitis Cases in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China

Infect Drug Resist. 2023 May 4:16:2727-2735. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S408632. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zeyi Liang^#¹, Jiahao Shen^#¹, Jing Liu¹, Xu Sun¹, Yayuan Yang¹, Yanan Lv¹, Juanshan Zheng¹, Xiaoqing Mou¹, Hongsheng Li¹, Xuezhi Ding¹, Feng Yang¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of New Animal Drug Project of Gansu Province/Key Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmaceutics Discovery, Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730050, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and genetic characterization of Serratia marcescens isolates from clinical bovine mastitis in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China.

Methods: S. marcescens was identified by the polymerase-chain reaction of 16S rRNA gene and sequencing. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by the disk diffusion method. Genes of resistance and virulence were determined by the PCR.

Results: Overall, S. marcescens were confirmed from 32 of 2897 (1.1%) mastitis milk samples. These isolates showed high resistance to cefazolin (30/32, 93.8%) and chloramphenicol (28/32, 87.5%). A 12.5% (4/32) of the isolates displayed multidrug resistance (MDR). The most prevalent resistant genes found in S. marcescens were TEM (32/32, 100%) and CTX-M (24/32, 75.0%; CTX-M-15, 14/32, 43.8%; CTX-M-14, 8/32, 25.0%; CTX-M-65, 2/32, 6.3%) for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, cmlA (28/32, 87.5%) and floR (16/32, 50.0%) for chloramphenicol resistance, SIM-1 (2/32, 6.3%) for carbapenemases, and sdeB (28/32, 87.5%), sdeY (26/32, 81.3%), sdeR (26/32, 81.3%) and sdeD (20/32, 62.5%) for efflux pumps. Moreover, all isolates carried virulence genes flhD, entB, and kpn, and most of them contained mrkD (30/32, 93.8%), ycfM (26/32, 81.3%), bsmB (26/32, 81.3%), pigP (26/32, 81.3%), kfu (24/32, 75.0%) and shlB (24/32, 75.0%).

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first report of genetic determinants for antimicrobial resistance and virulence in S. marcescens isolated from bovine mastitis cases in China. These findings are useful for developing strategies for prevention and treatment of bovine mastitis caused by S. marcescens in China.

Keywords: Serratia marcescens; antimicrobial resistance; bovine mastitis; virulence.