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Escherichia coli carrying blaNDM-1 obtained from a migratory penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) in the Brazilian seacoast

  • Veterinary Microbiology - Short Communication
  • Published:
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Abstract

The reservoirs for NDM-producing Enterobacterales are increasing, not only in hospitals, but also in the environment and in the community, challenging the therapeutic efficacy of carbapenems. We aimed to characterize an isolate of Escherichia coli harboring the blaNDM-1 gene recovered from the bloodstream of a penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) in Southern Brazil. A total of 74 bacterial isolates recovered from arterial blood samples from dead birds were submitted to species identification and antibiotic susceptibility evaluation. One isolate presented resistance to carbapenems (E. coli 89PenNDM) and proved to harbor the blaNDM-1 gene by multiplex high-resolution melting real-time PCR (PCR-HRM). Conjugation experiments indicated that the blaNDM-1 was transmissible to E. coli J53. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) confirmed the presence of the blaNDM-1 gene in a conjugative plasmid (IncA/C2 plasmid) in both the E. coli 89PenNDM and its transconjugants. The isolate was classified as ST 156 and many other resistance genes (e.g., sul1, sul,2, strA, floR, tet(A)) were identified, all carried in the same IncA/C2 plasmid. This is the first report of blaNDM-1-producing E. coli isolated from a penguin in the Brazilian seacoast. The presence of a carbapenemase gene in wildlife animals is of concern as they may become reservoirs of multidrug-resistant bacteria and disseminate them to the environment.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Evelin Kern Almeida, Helena de Ávila Peixoto e Silva, Marina Crispin, Cristiane Kiyomi Miyaji Kolesnikovas, and Bruna Silva da Silva for technical support.

Funding

This work was supported by INPRA — Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa em Resistência Antimicrobiana — Brazil (FIPE/HCPA: 2019–0203, INCT/CNPq: 465718/2014–0 and INCT/FAPERGS: 17/2551–0000514-7).

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Author notes

  1. Priscila L. Wink and Daiana Lima-Morales contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Pesquisa em Resistência Bacteriana (LABRESIS), Centro de Pesquisa Experimental, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Rua Ramiro Barcelos 2350, Porto Alegre, RS, 90.035-903, Brazil

    Priscila L. Wink, Daiana Lima-Morales & Afonso L. Barth

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Priscila L. Wink & Afonso L. Barth

  3. Curso de Especialização em Microbiologia Clínica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Rafael Meurer & Afonso L. Barth

  4. Associação R3 Animal, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Rafael Meurer

Authors
  1. Priscila L. Wink
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  2. Daiana Lima-Morales
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  3. Rafael Meurer
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  4. Afonso L. Barth
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Priscila L. Wink, Daiana de Lima-Morales, and Rafael Meurer. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Priscila L. Wink and Daiana de Lima-Morales and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Afonso L. Barth.

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Ethics approval

Animals were collected under ABIO 640/2015, emitted as part of the environmental licensing process required by IBAMA for oil production and transportation by Petrobras in the pre-salt province.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Nilton Lincopan

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Nucleotide sequence accession number

This Whole Genome Shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession WTFK00000000. The version described in this paper is version WTFK01000000.

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Wink, P.L., Lima-Morales, D., Meurer, R. et al. Escherichia coli carrying blaNDM-1 obtained from a migratory penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) in the Brazilian seacoast. Braz J Microbiol 53, 499–502 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-021-00652-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-021-00652-7

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