Abstract
Despite a lot of information about virulence and resistance of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in poultry, very limited data are currently available on its occurrence in pigeon isolates, although this poses a threat to human and animal health. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore the phylogenetic classification, antibiotic sensitivity, and virulence factors in E. coli isolated from cloacal swabs of domestic pigeons bred for meat (n = 47) and racing pigeons (n = 44). The most frequent phylogroup in racing pigeons was E (36, 82.00%), unlike domestic pigeons (B2- 19, 40.00%). The most abundant iron uptake system in both groups of bird was feoB (racing = 40, 90.90%; domestic = 44, 93.61%). The presence of ibeA (52, 57.10%) and kpsMTII (46, 50.50%) genes was detected in more than half of all strains belonging exclusively to phylogroups B2, D, E, F, clade I. Antibiotic resistance was higher in racing pigeons. All racing pigeon isolates were resistant to tetracycline and trimethoprim + sulphonamide. Resistance to ciprofloxacin was determined in three isolates (6.38%) of domestic and 33 isolates (75%) of racing pigeons. Aminoglycosides and β-lactamases resistance were also recorded. One of the important detected phenotypic mechanisms of resistance occurring in isolates from racing pigeons was AGL AAC(6´)I. Our study confirms that healthy pigeons are a reservoir of antibiotic-resistant E. coli containing an arsenal of virulence factors, thus capable of potentially causing infection. Pigeons with the option to fly to multiple places can transfer virulent and resistant bacteria. Direct contact with pigeons and their faeces and the contamination of water and food pose a threat of infection to humans and other animal species.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank DVM František Zigo for collecting samples from pigeons.
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This work was supported by the Slovak scientific agency VEGA grant (Vedecká grantová agentúra Ministerstva školstva, vedy, výskumu a športu Slovenskej republiky a Slovenskej akadémie vied) number 2/0010/21.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Tímea Kocúreková], [Lívia Karahutová] and [Dobroslava Bujňáková]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Tímea Kocúreková], [Dobroslava Bujňáková] and [Lívia Karahutová] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Bujňáková, D., Kocúreková, T. & Karahutová, L. Distribution of virulence-associated genes, antibiotic resistance and phylogenetic groups in Escherichia coli isolated from domestic and racing pigeons. Vet Res Commun 47, 1697–1705 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-023-10126-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-023-10126-w