Previous Article | Next Article 
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2009, p. 695-702, Vol. 75, No. 3
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.01650-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Isolation and Characterization of Intestinal Escherichia coli Clones from Wild Boars in Germany
,
Peter Schierack,1,4*
Antje Römer,1
Jörg Jores,1,5
Heike Kaspar,2
Sebastian Guenther,1
Matthias Filter,3
Jürgen Eichberg,1 and
Lothar H. Wieler1
Institut für Mikrobiologie und Tierseuchen, Fachbereich Veterinärmedizin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany,1 Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit, Berlin, Germany,2 Institut für Molekularbiologie und Bioinformatik, Charite, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin Germany,3 Fachbereich Bio-, Chemie- und Verfahrenstechnik, Fachhochschule Lausitz, Senftenberg, Germany,4 International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya5
Received 17 July 2008/ Accepted 23 November 2008
Our understanding of the composition of Escherichia coli populations in wild boars is very limited. In order to obtain insight into the E. coli microflora of wild boars, we studied E. coli isolates from the jejunums, ileums, and colons of 21 wild boars hunted in five geographic locations in Germany. Ten isolates per section were subjected to clonal determination using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. One representative isolate per clone was further investigated for virulence traits, phylogenetic affiliation, and antimicrobial susceptibility. Macrorestriction analysis of 620 isolates revealed a range of clone diversity among the sections and animals, with up to 9 and 16 different clones per section and animal, respectively. Most of the clones for a given animal were shared between two adjacent intestinal sections. The overall highest clonal diversity was observed within the colon. While the astA gene was present in a large number of clones, other virulence genes and hemolytic ability were detected only sporadically. Clones of all four ECOR groups dominated the intestinal sections. Phylogenetic analysis and the occurrence of virulence genes correlated with the isolation frequencies for clones. All E. coli clones from wild boars were susceptible to all antimicrobial agents tested. In conclusion, though several parameters (including an animal-specific and highly diverse E. coli clone composition, the simultaneous occurrence of single clones in two adjacent intestinal sections of a given animal, and a higher E. coli diversity in the large intestine than in the small intestine) of E. coli populations of wild boars were similar to those of previously described E. coli populations of conventionally reared domestic pigs, our data also indicate possible differences, as seen for the E. coli diversity in the large intestine, the occurrence of certain virulence genes and phylogenetic groups, and antimicrobial susceptibilities.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Fachbereich Bio-, Chemie- und Verfahrenstechnik, Grossenhainer Str. 57, D-01968 Senftenberg, Germany. Phone: 49-3573-85 32. Fax: 49-3573-85 809. E-mail: pschiera{at}fh-lausitz.de
Published ahead of print on 5 December 2008.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2009, p. 695-702, Vol. 75, No. 3
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.01650-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»