TITLE:
Escherichia coli Harbouring Resistance Genes, Virulence Genes and Integron 1 Isolated from Athi River in Kenya
AUTHORS:
Peris Wambugu, John Kiiru, Viviene Matiru
KEYWORDS:
Athi River, E. coli, Integron 1, Resistance Genes, Virulence Genes
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.8 No.11,
November
7,
2018
ABSTRACT: Rivers can act as reservoirs of highly resistant strains and facilitate the dissemination of resistance, virulence and integron 1 genes. A cross-sectional study was carried out where 318 water samples were collected (53 from each site) and from the samples, 318 E. coli isolates were analysed for resistance genes, virulence genes and integron 1 using Polymerase Chain Reaction. 22% of the isolates had blaTEM, 33% had blaCTX-M and 28% had blaCMY. Prevalence of typical Enteropathogenic E. coli strains (carrying both eae and bfp genes) was 5% while the prevalence of atypical Enteropathogenic E. coli (carying only eae) was 1.8%. The prevalence of Enteroaggregative E. coli carrying the aggr genes was 11%. The prevalence of Enterotoxigenic E. coli encoding only lt toxin was 16 (5%) and while those carrying only st toxin was 6.9%. The prevalence of Enteroinvasive E. coli strains encoding as IpaH was 5% while that of strains, adherent invasive E. coli, carrying adherent invasive gene inv was 8.7%. 36% isolates were positive for class 1 integrons which were mostly isolated near the sewage effluent from waste treatment plant. Anthropogenic activities and close proximity to sewage treatment plant were found to play a key role in pollution of water body and accumulation of resistance and virulence genes. These results suggest that waste treatment plant may act as reservoir of resistance, virulence and integron 1 genes and is a potential risk to human and animal health in the region.