Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK.
Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 27;14(1):1707. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37312-3.
Escherichia albertii is a recently identified gastrointestinal bacterial pathogen of humans and animals which is typically misidentified as pathotypes of diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli or Shigella species and is generally only detected during genomic surveillance of other Enterobacteriaceae. The incidence of E. albertii is likely underestimated, and its epidemiology and clinical relevance are poorly characterised. Here, we whole genome sequenced E. albertii isolates from humans (n = 83) and birds (n = 79) isolated in Great Britain between 2000 and 2021 and analysed these alongside a broader public dataset (n = 475) to address these gaps. We found human and avian isolates typically (90%; 148/164) belonged to host-associated monophyletic groups with distinct virulence and antimicrobial resistance profiles. Overlaid patient epidemiological data suggested that human infection was likely related to travel and possibly foodborne transmission. The Shiga toxin encoding stx2f gene was associated with clinical disease (OR = 10.27, 95% CI = 2.98-35.45 p = 0.0002) in finches. Our results suggest that improved future surveillance will further elucidate disease ecology and public and animal health risks associated with E. albertii.
大肠埃希氏菌 albertii 是一种最近被鉴定出的人类和动物胃肠道细菌病原体，通常被错误鉴定为腹泻型大肠埃希氏菌或志贺氏菌属的病原体，通常仅在对其他肠杆菌科进行基因组监测时才被发现。大肠埃希氏菌 albertii 的发病率可能被低估，其流行病学和临床相关性特征描述不足。在这里，我们对 2000 年至 2021 年间在英国分离的人类（n=83）和鸟类（n=79）的大肠埃希氏菌 albertii 分离株进行了全基因组测序，并对这些分离株进行了分析，同时分析了更广泛的公共数据集（n=475），以解决这些空白。我们发现，人类和鸟类的分离株通常（90%；148/164）属于与宿主相关的单系群，具有不同的毒力和抗微生物药物耐药性特征。叠加患者流行病学数据表明，人类感染可能与旅行有关，并且可能与食源性传播有关。编码志贺毒素的 stx2f 基因与雀科动物的临床疾病相关（OR=10.27，95%CI=2.98-35.45，p=0.0002）。我们的研究结果表明，未来加强监测将进一步阐明与大肠埃希氏菌 albertii 相关的疾病生态学以及公共和动物健康风险。
