CTX-M15-producing Escherichia coli clone B2-O25b-ST131 and Klebsiella spp. isolates in municipal wastewater treatment plant effluents

Objectives: The global occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes in bacteria in water environments is an increasing concern. Treated wastewater was sampled daily over a 45 day period from the outflow of a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Brno, Czech Republic, and examined for extended-spectrum b-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria. Methods: Water samples were cultivated on MacConkey agar with cefotaxime (2 mg/L) and individual colonies were examined for ESBL production. Phenotypic ESBL-positive bacteria identified as Escherichia coli or Klebsiella spp. were tested for the presence of antibiotic resistance genes, the virulence gene afa/dra and the bla CTX-M upstream region. Genetic relatedness was analysed by PFGE, multilocus sequence typing and plasmid analysis. Results: A total of 68 ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae isolates were detected in 34 out of 45 wastewater samples. ESBL-producing isolates included 26 E. coli isolates, 4 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates and 1 Klebsiella oxytoca isolate. The pandemic and multiresistant B2-O25b-ST131 clone was predominant, being detected among 19 E. coli isolates, and 17 of the B2-O25b-ST131 isolates were positive for the FIA replicon and the afa/dra operon and had an IS26 element flanking bla CTX-M-15 . Seventeen of the B2-O25b-ST131 isolates showed closely related PFGE profiles (defined by 84% band similarity) and belonged to identical clonal groups. Conclusions: The results highlight the inadequacy of the treatment process in removing multiresistant bacteria from municipal wastewater and point to a risk of transmission of clinically important multiresistant strains, such as the pandemic ST131 clone, to the environment. This is the first study demonstrating the pandemic ST131 clone in wastewater

Host dispersal shapes the population structure of a tick-borne bacterial pathogen

Birds are hosts for several zoonotic pathogens. Because of their high mobility, especially of longdistance migrants, birds can disperse these pathogens, affecting their distribution and phylogeography. We focused on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, which includes the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis, as an example for tick-borne pathogens, to address the role of birds as propagation hosts of zoonotic agents at a large geographical scale. We collected ticks from passerine birds in 11 European countries. B. burgdorferi s.l. prevalence in Ixodes spp. was 37% and increased with latitude. The fieldfare Turdus pilaris and the blackbird T. merula carried ticks with the highest Borrelia prevalence (92 and 58%, respectively), whereas robin Erithacus rubecula ticks were the least infected (3.8%). Borrelia garinii was the most prevalent genospecies (61%), followed by B. valaisiana (24%), B. afzelii (9%), B. turdi (5%) and B. lusitaniae (0.5%). A novel Borrelia genospecies "Candidatus Borrelia aligera" was also detected. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis of B. garinii isolates together with the global collection of B. garinii genotypes obtained from the Borrelia MLST public database revealed that: (a) there was little overlap among genotypes from different continents, (b) there was no geographical structuring within Europe, and (c) there was no evident association pattern detectable among B. garinii genotypes from ticks feeding on birds, questing ticks or human isolates. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that the population structure and evolutionary biology of tick-borne pathogens are shaped by their host associations and the movement patterns of these hosts.Peer reviewe

Combined Analysis of Variation in Core, Accessory and Regulatory Genome Regions Provides a Super-Resolution View into the Evolution of Bacterial Populations

The use of whole-genome phylogenetic analysis has revolutionized our understanding of the evolution and spread of many important bacterial pathogens due to the high resolution view it provides. However, the majority of such analyses do not consider the potential role of accessory genes when inferring evolutionary trajectories. Moreover, the recently discovered importance of the switching of gene regulatory elements suggests that an exhaustive analysis, combining information from core and accessory genes with regulatory elements could provide unparalleled detail of the evolution of a bacterial population. Here we demonstrate this principle by applying it to a worldwide multi-host sample of the important pathogenic E. coli lineage ST131. Our approach reveals the existence of multiple circulating subtypes of the major drug-resistant clade of ST131 and provides the first ever population level evidence of core genome substitutions in gene regulatory regions associated with the acquisition and maintenance of different accessory genome elements.Peer reviewe

Mites of the genus Neharpyrhynchus Fain (Acariformes, Harpirhynchidae) from Neotropical birds

Three new species of parasitic mites of the genus Neharpyrhynchus Fain (Acariformes, Harpirhynchidae) are described from Neotropical birds, N. chlorospingus sp. n. from Chlorospingus pileatus (Passeriformes, Emberizidae) from Costa Rica, N. mironovi sp. n. from Dacnys cayana (Passeriformes, Thraupidae) and N. tangara sp. n. from Tangara cayana (Thraupidae) both from Brazil. Neharpyrhynchus trochilinus (Fain) is recorded from 3 new hosts of the family Trochilidae (Apodiformes), Panterpe insignis and Eugenes fulgens from Costa Rica, and Amazilia lactea from Brazil. Emended diagnosis of the genus and a key to species are provided; all records of Neharpyrhynchus species are summarized

Chewing lice of genus Ricinus (Phthiraptera, Ricinidae) deposited at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia, with description of a new species

We revised a collection of chewing lice deposited at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia. We studied 60 slides with 107 specimens of 10 species of the genus Ricinus (De Geer, 1778). The collection includes lectotype specimens of Ricinus ivanovi Blagoveshtchensky, 1951 and of Ricinus tugarinovi Blagoveshtchensky, 1951. We registered Ricinus elongatus Olfers, 1816 ex Turdus ruficollis, R. ivanovi ex Leucosticte tephrocotis and Ricinus serratus (Durrant, 1906) ex Calandrella acutirostris and Calandrella cheleensis which were not included in Price’s world checklist. New records for Russia are R. elongatus ex Turdus ruficollis; Ricinus fringillae De Geer, 1778 ex Emberiza aureola, Emberiza leucocephalos, Emberiza rustica, Passer montanus and Prunella modularis; Ricinus rubeculae De Geer, 1778 ex Erithacus rubecula and Luscinia svecica; Ricinus serratus (Durrant, 1906) ex Alauda arvensis. New records for Kyrgyzstan are R. fringillae ex E. leucocephalos and ex Fringilla coelebs. A new record for Tajikistan is R. serratus ex Calandrella acutirostris. The new species Ricinus vaderi Valan n. sp. is described with Calandra lark, Melanocorypha calandra; from Azerbaijan, as a type host

Redescriptions and new host records of chewing lice of the genus Ricinus (Phthiraptera Ricinidae) from the Neotropical Region.

Two species of the chewing louse genus Ricinus are redescribed and illustrated: Ricinus dalgleishi Nelson, 1972 from Helmitheros vermivorum (Gmelin, 1789), a new host-louse association, and Ricinus tanagraephilus Eichler, 1956 from Euphonia laniirostris d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837. Also, new host-louse associations are recorded for Ricinus vireoensis Nelson, 1972 from Vireo pallens Salvin, 1863, and for females of an unidentified species of Ricinus sp. from Corythopis delalandi (Lesson, 1831), which are described and illustrated

Chewing lice of genus

We revised a collection of chewing lice deposited at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia. We studied 60 slides with 107 specimens of 10 species of the genus Ricinus (De Geer, 1778). The collection includes lectotype specimens of Ricinus ivanovi Blagoveshtchensky, 1951 and of Ricinus tugarinovi Blagoveshtchensky, 1951. We registered Ricinus elongatus Olfers, 1816 ex Turdus ruficollis, R. ivanovi ex Leucosticte tephrocotis and Ricinus serratus (Durrant, 1906) ex Calandrella acutirostris and Calandrella cheleensis which were not included in Price’s world checklist. New records for Russia are R. elongatus ex Turdus ruficollis; Ricinus fringillae De Geer, 1778 ex Emberiza aureola, Emberiza leucocephalos, Emberiza rustica, Passer montanus and Prunella modularis; Ricinus rubeculae De Geer, 1778 ex Erithacus rubecula and Luscinia svecica; Ricinus serratus (Durrant, 1906) ex Alauda arvensis. New records for Kyrgyzstan are R. fringillae ex E. leucocephalos and ex Fringilla coelebs. A new record for Tajikistan is R. serratus ex Calandrella acutirostris. The new species Ricinus vaderi Valan n. sp. is described with Calandra lark, Melanocorypha calandra; from Azerbaijan, as a type host

Three species of the genus Pellonyssus (Acari : Macronyssidae) including a new species from Costa Rican birds

Three species of the genus Pellonyssus Clark and Yunker, 1956 are reported from Costa Rican birds: Pellonyssus gorgasi Yunker and Radovsky 1966 from Threnetes ruckeri (Bourcier) (Trochilidae); Pellonyssus marui Yunker and Radovsky, 1966 from Manacus candei (Parzudaki) (Pipridae); and Pellonyssus cyanoides Dusbabek and Literak n. sp. from Cyanocompsa cyanoides (Lafresnaye) (Cardinalidae) Figures of female P. marui and of male P. cyanoides Dusbabek and Literak n. sp. are included