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Virulence and antibiotic susceptibility of Aeromonas spp. isolated from drinking water

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Abstract

Aeromonas isolates from tap water, mineral water, and artesian well water were investigated for their ability to produce different potential virulence factors or markers such as hemolysins, cytotoxins, phospholipase, DNase, hydrophobicity and their ability to adhere to epithelial cells and to abiotic surfaces. The susceptibility to antibiotics of Aeromonas isolates was also examined. Majority of the isolates displayed hemolytic activity against sheep erythrocytes, while only 7 of the 23 Aeromonas strains displayed DNase activity and 4 of the 23 Aeromonas strains tested were regarded as positive for phospholipase production. Most of the isolates showed cytotoxic activities in culture filtrate dilutions at titer of 1/8 or lower. No general relation between the strain isolated and the ability to interact with epithelial cells could be established. Using the bacterial adherence to hydrocarbons method, most of the strains were classified as highly hydrophilic. All five Aeromonas jandaei strains isolates, 9 of the 12 Aeromonas sp strains and four of the five Aeromonas hydrophila were multidrug resistant. The most active antimicrobial was ciprofloxacin (susceptible in 100% of the isolates), and the least active antibiotic was ampicillin (resistance in 92% of the isolates). The majority of the isolates tested were not killed by chlorine at 1.2 mg/l. Whether the high tolerance to chlorine of Aeromonas isolates can be linked to greater virulence is not know.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Fundação Araucária, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), and Programa de Pós-graduação em Microbiologia da Universidade Estadual de Londrina.

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  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Microbiologia, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Rodovia Celso Garcia Cid, Pr 445 Km 380, Cx. Postal 6001, 86051-990, Londrina, PR, Brazil

    Denise de Oliveira Scoaris

  2. Programa de Pós-graduação em Análises Clínicas, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Av. Colombo, 5790, 87020-900, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    Jean Colacite

  3. Departamento de Análises Clínicas, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Av. Colombo, 5790, 87020-900, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    Celso V. Nakamura, Tânia Ueda-Nakamura, Benício A. de Abreu Filho & Benedito P. Dias Filho

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  1. Denise de Oliveira Scoaris
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Scoaris, D.O., Colacite, J., Nakamura, C.V. et al. Virulence and antibiotic susceptibility of Aeromonas spp. isolated from drinking water. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 93, 111–122 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-007-9185-z

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