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Multi-drug resistant (MDR), extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing and carbapenem resistant Escherichia coli in rescued Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus), India

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Abstract

The study reports the multi-drug resistant (MDR), extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing and carbapenem resistant Escherichia coli (CRE) isolated from rescued sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), India. Non-duplicate faecal samples from 21 adult rescued sloth bears were collected at once during 2015–2016 and processed for isolation of E. coli and antibacterial susceptibility pattern. From 21 samples, 45 E. coli were isolated and on phenotypic screening, 23 were MDR, 17 were ESBL producers, and five were carbapenem-resistant (CR). Three E. coli isolates (6.67%, 3/45) showed no resistance, however 42 isolates (93.33%, 42/45) exhibited resistant to at least one antibiotics. The MDR isolates carried beta-lactamase, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides, tetracycline, fluroquinolone, and sulphadimidine resistance genes. All the phenotypic ESBL producing isolates harbored blaCTX-M genes. On genotypic screening, three CRE (60.0%, 3/5) were positive for blaNDM carbapenemase gene and efflux pump-mediated carbapenem resistance was detected in two CRE isolates (40.0%, 2/5) which were negative for carbapenemase genes. The CRE isolates (n = 5) also co-harbored AMR genes like blaTEM-1, blaAmpC, qnrA, qnrB, qnrS, tetA, tetB and sulI. Virulence screening of the resistant isolates detected the presence of Stx1(n = 1), Stx2 (n = 3), eaeA (n = 4) and hlyA (n = 3) genes. Plasmid incompatibility (Inc) typing revealed that two isolates harboured blaNDM-5 gene on Incl1 and one isolate on IncF plasmid. Apart from the NDM gene, the plasmids also carried tetracycline, beta-lactamase and quinolone resistance genes. The plasmid multilocus sequence typing (pMLST) of the E. coli Incl1 plasmid showed the Sequence Type (ST) 297. This appears to be the first report of MDR, ESBL producing and blaNDM-5 genes on Incl1 and IncF plasmids from rescued sloth bear.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial assistance provided by National Referral Centre on Wildlife Healthcare (CZA, New Delhi) for supporting the research work. The authors would further like to thank Director, IVRI and Wildlife SOS for permitting to carry out the research work.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, 243122, India

    O. R. VinodhKumar, B. R. Singh, D. K. Sinha & B. S. Pruthvishree

  2. Centre for Wildlife, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, 243122, India

    M. Karikalan, S. Chandra Mohan, A. M. Pawde & A. K. Sharma

  3. Agra Bear Rescue Centre, Wildlife SOS, Keetham, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India

    S. Ilayaraja

  4. Research &Veterinary Operations, Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Centre, Wildlife SOS, Bengaluru, India

    Arun A. Sha

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  1. O. R. VinodhKumar
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  2. M. Karikalan
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  3. S. Ilayaraja
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Contributions

Vinodh Kumar O. R—Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft. M. Karikalan—Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft. S. Ilayaraja – Methodology, Data curation B.R Singh—Validation Arun A Sha– Methodology, Resources, Software D.K.Sinha– Validation Pruthvishree, B.S – Methodology S. Chandra Mohan—review & editing A.M.Pawde—review & editing AK Sharma- Validation.

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Correspondence to O. R. VinodhKumar.

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VinodhKumar, O.R., Karikalan, M., Ilayaraja, S. et al. Multi-drug resistant (MDR), extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing and carbapenem resistant Escherichia coli in rescued Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus), India. Vet Res Commun 45, 163–170 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09794-3

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