Survey of Escherichia albertii in Swine Feces Sampled at a Slaughterhouse in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

Swine fecal samples collected from a slaughterhouse in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan in 2017 and 2018, were examined for the presence of Escherichia albertii to determine whether swine carry this emerging zoonotic pathogen. In total, 37 E. albertii isolates were obtained from 17/525 (3.2%) cecal feces samples. Of the 37 isolates, 54.1% were resistant to one or more antibiotics, including tetracycline. The isolates were classified into 6 groups by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Using genome-wide phylogenetic analysis, 6 representative isolates (one from each of the 6 groups) were classified into phylogroup G1 and 2 sublineages of phylogroup G3, each of which includes human-derived strains. Therefore, our results showed that swine from Yamagata and nearby prefectures in Japan harbor E. albertii exhibiting diverse PFGE types, which suggested that swine-derived food products could be vehicles for the transmission of this pathogen to humans.