Inspection Division, Okayama Prefectural Bizen Public Healthcare Center, Okayama, Japan.
Graduate School of Veterinary Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan.
J Vet Med Sci. 2022 Sep 12;84(9):1299-1306. doi: 10.1292/jvms.22-0213. Epub 2022 Jul 27.
Escherichia albertii has recently been recognized as a zoonotic enteropathogen associated with food poisoning. The reservoirs and transmission routes of this bacterium to humans are still unclear. In this study, we performed a survey of E. albertii in fecal specimens of wild and safeguarded animals in Okayama Prefecture and its prefectural borders, Japan to understand its reservoir in the environment. Forty-two E. albertii were isolated from 10 and 31 droppings of 59 crows and 125 starlings, respectively. Fifty-two E. albertii were isolated from 906 mammal droppings, and out of 52 isolates, origin of 33, 6 and 1 isolates were from martens, foxes, and rabbit, respectively, however, origin of 12 isolates remained unknown. Three E. albertii were isolated from two and one feces of 159 dogs and 76 cats, respectively. Pulsed-filed gel electrophoresis analysis grouped 97 E. albertii strains into 66 pulsotypes including 36 and 30 pulsotypes of isolates from mammals and birds, respectively. E. albertii strains isolated in this study were genetically diverse. Although clonal relationship was not observed between mammal and bird isolates, there were intra- and inter-species relationship in mammalian isolates. All E. albertii strains were positive for eae and Eacdt virulence genes. Furthermore, 20 and 7 strains also carried Eccdt-I and stx2f genes, respectively. Taken together, the results indicate that genetically diverse and potentially virulent E. albertii are distributed among various wild and safeguarded animals in Okayama Prefecture, and the animals could also be reservoirs of E. albertii.
最近，大肠杆菌 albertii 被认为是一种与食物中毒有关的人畜共患病肠道病原体。这种细菌向人类传播的储存宿主和传播途径仍不清楚。在这项研究中，我们对日本冈山县及其周边地区的野生动物和受保护动物的粪便样本进行了大肠杆菌 albertii 的调查，以了解其在环境中的储存库。从 59 只乌鸦和 125 只八哥的 10 个和 31 个粪便中分别分离出 42 株和 31 株大肠杆菌 albertii。从 906 份哺乳动物粪便中分离出 52 株大肠杆菌 albertii，其中 33 株、6 株和 1 株的来源分别为貂、狐狸和兔子，但 12 株的来源仍不清楚。从 159 只狗和 76 只猫的 2 只和 1 只粪便中分别分离出 3 株和 1 株大肠杆菌 albertii。脉冲场凝胶电泳分析将 97 株大肠杆菌 albertii 菌株分为 66 个脉冲型，其中哺乳动物和鸟类分离株分别为 36 个和 30 个脉冲型。本研究分离的大肠杆菌 albertii 菌株遗传多样性丰富。尽管哺乳动物和鸟类分离株之间没有观察到克隆关系，但在哺乳动物分离株中存在种内和种间关系。所有大肠杆菌 albertii 菌株均为 eae 和 Eacdt 毒力基因阳性。此外，20 株和 7 株菌株还分别携带 Eccdt-I 和 stx2f 基因。综上所述，这些结果表明，遗传多样性丰富且具有潜在毒力的大肠杆菌 albertii 分布在冈山县的各种野生动物和受保护动物中，这些动物也可能是大肠杆菌 albertii 的储存宿主。
