Author(s):
Batista, Rita ; Saraiva, Margarida ; Lopes, Teresa ; Silveira, Leonor ; Coelho, Anabela ; Furtado, Rosália ; Castro, Rita ; Correia, Cristina Belo ; Rodrigues, David ; Henriques, Pedro ; Lóio, Sara ; Soeiro, Vanessa ; da Costa, Paulo Martins ; Oleastro, Mónica ; Pista, Angela
Date: 2022
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/8514
Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Nacional de Saúde
Subject(s): Campylobacter spp.; Salmonella spp.; Pathogenic Escherichia coli;; Whole-Genome Sequencing; Free-living Birds; Infecções Gastrointestinais; Segurança Alimentar; Portugal
Description
Birds are potential carriers of pathogens affecting humans and agriculture. Aiming to evaluate the occurrence of the top three most important foodborne pathogens in free-living birds in Portugal, we investigated 108 individual fecal samples from free-living birds and one pooled sample of gull feces (n = 50) for the presence of Escherichia coli (pathogenic and non-pathogenic), Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. Virulence- and antimicrobial resistance- (AMR) associated genes were detected by PCR and Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS), and phenotypic (serotyping and AMR profiles) characterization was performed. Overall, 8.9% of samples tested positive for pathogenic E. coli, 2.8% for Salmonella spp., and 9.9% for Campylobacter spp. AMR was performed on all pathogenic isolates and in a fraction of non-pathogenic E. coli, being detected in 25.9% of them. Ten of the tested E. coli isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR), and seven of them were Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producers. Among Salmonella (n = 3) and Campylobacter (n = 9), only one strain of C. jejuni was identified as MDR. Most of the identified serotypes/sequence types had already been found to be associated with human disease. These results show that free-living birds in Portugal may act as carriers of foodborne pathogens linked to human disease, some of them resistant to critically important antimicrobials.
