Phenotypic and Genotypic Antimicrobial Resistance Traits of Vibrio cholerae Non-O1/Non-O139 Isolated From a Large Austrian Lake Frequently Associated With Cases of Human Infection

Vibrio cholerae belonging to serogroups other than O1 and O139 are opportunistic pathogens which cause infections with a variety of clinical symptoms. Due to the increasing number of V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 infections in association with recreational waters in the past two decades, they have received increasing attention in recent literature and by public health authorities. Since the treatment of choice is the administration of antibiotics, we investigated the distribution of antimicrobial resistance properties in a V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 population in a large Austrian lake intensively used for recreation and in epidemiologically linked clinical isolates. In total, 82 environmental isolates - selected on the basis of comprehensive phylogenetic information - and nine clinical isolates were analyzed for their phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility. The genomes of 46 environmental and eight clinical strains were screened for known genetic antimicrobial resistance traits in CARD and ResFinder databases. In general, antimicrobial susceptibility of the investigated V. cholerae population was high. The environmental strains were susceptible against most of the 16 tested antibiotics, except sulfonamides (97.5% resistant strains), streptomycin (39% resistant) and ampicillin (20.7% resistant). Clinical isolates partly showed additional resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. Genome analysis showed that crp, a regulator of multidrug efflux genes, and the bicyclomycin/multi...
Source: Frontiers in Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research