Antimicrobial-resistant and ESBL-producing Escherichia coli in different ecological niches in Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION The rapid and wide-scale environmental spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria in different ecosystems has become a serious issue in recent years. OBJECTIVES To investigate the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance and extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) in Bangladeshi wild birds and aquatic environments, samples were taken from Open Bill Stork (Anastomus oscitans) (OBS) and the nearby water sources. METHODS Water and fresh fecal samples were collected from several locations. All samples were processed and cultured for Escherichia coli and tested for antibiotic susceptibility against commonly used antibiotics. ESBL producers were characterized at genotypic level using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), sequencing, multilocus sequence typing, and rep-PCR. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A total of 76 E. coli isolates from the 170 OBS and 8 E. coli isolates from three river sources were isolated. In total, 29% of E. coli isolated from OBS and all of the E. coli isolated from water sources were resistant to at least one of the tested antimicrobials. Resistant phenotypes were observed with all antimicrobials except tigecycline, gentamicin, imipenem, and chloramphenicol. Multidrug resistance was observed in 2.6% of OBS and 37.5% of the water isolates. Also, 1.2% of the ESBL-producing E. coli were isolated from OBS, whereas 50% of the E. coli isolated from water sources were ESBL producers possessing the CTX-M-15 gene. The most concerning aspect of our findings was the presence of human-associated E. coli sequence types in the water samples, for example, ST156-complex156, ST10-complex10 and ST46. CONCLUSION This study reports the presence of multidrug-resistant ESBL-producing E. coli in OBSs and nearby aquatic sources in Bangladesh.