Antimicrobial-Resistant < em > Enterobacterales < /em > Recovered from the Environment of Two Zoological Institutions Include Enterobacter cloacae Complex ST171 Producing KPC-4 Carbapenemase

Appl Environ Microbiol. 2023 Apr 17:e0025723. doi: 10.1128/aem.00257-23. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTEnvironmental surfaces can serve as reservoirs for pathogens and antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria in healthcare settings. Although active surveillance programs are used in veterinary and human healthcare, unconventional settings like zoological facilities are often overlooked, even though antimicrobials are used to maintain the health of their animal collections. Here, we used electrostatic cloths to conduct active environmental surveillance over a 2-year period at two zoological institutions to determine contamination prevalence of human-only and mixed animal-human touch environments with AMR bacteria. We recovered Enterobacterales isolates that expressed quinolone resistance, an AmpC-like phenotype, and an extended-spectrum β-lactamase phenotype from 144 (39%), 141 (38.2%), and 72 (19.5%) of the environmental samples, respectively. The zoological institutions, areas and exhibits within the zoological facility, and sampling surface type affected the odds of recovering AMR bacteria from the environment. Three carbapenemase-producing Enterobacter cloacae complex ST171 isolates recovered from one zoological facility harbored an IncH12 plasmid with a Tn4401b-KPC-4 transposon conferring multidrug resistance. One isolate maintained three tandem repeats of a Tn4401b-KPC-4 element on an IncHI2 plasmid, although this isolate was susceptible to the four carbapenem drugs tested...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Source Type: research