Drug-resistant germ packs punch to US travelers

Date:
August 2, 2021
Source:
Washington State University
Summary:
One type of the salmonella bacteria is much more likely to cause
disease and fend off frontline antibiotics when acquired in Europe,
Asia, and parts of Africa rather than domestically in the United
States.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
One type of the salmonella bacteria is much more likely to cause disease
and fend off frontline antibiotics when acquired in Europe, Asia, and
parts of Africa rather than domestically in the United States.


========================================================================== Washington State University researchers aren't sure yet why salmonella
Kentucky isolates from certain parts of the globe are antibiotic resistant while others aren't, but their findings are a key step toward better understanding and treatment.

"Quite frankly, I think we've just gotten lucky this drug-resistant
type hasn't popped up in the U.S. yet," said Rachel Soltys, a graduate
student and first author of a paper on the research in the Journal of
Frontiers and Sustainable Food Systems.

The study was conducted in the laboratory of Devendra Shah, an associate professor and the Caroline Engle Distinguished Professor in Research on Infectious Diseases. Shah is part of the university's large disease
research effort and is housed in WSU's Department of Veterinary
Microbiology and Pathology.

Researchers in the Shah lab looked specifically at salmonella
Kentucky. Just like other salmonella types, the bacteria thrive in the gastrointestinal tracts of food animals such as chickens and cattle,
and are known to cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever in humans.

The researchers found that more than 60% of Washingtonians with a
confirmed salmonella Kentucky infection while abroad from 2004 to 2014
were resistant to fluoroquinolones, a group of frontline antibiotics
used to treat salmonella infection.



========================================================================== While the lab also collected salmonella Kentucky isolates from
domestically raised food animals in the U.S. such as chickens, none
showed resistance to this group of antibiotics.

To trace the origin of antibiotic resistance in strains, Soltys and Shah analyzed 15 fluoroquinolone-resistant clinical samples of salmonella
Kentucky collected by the Washington State Department of Health.

In collaboration with the state health department, 11 of those cases were traced directly to international travel to the Middle East and countries
such as Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Egypt, and India.

To back up their findings, another 140 salmonella Kentucky samples
collected from chickens in the northwestern U.S. and a few from
the laboratory of Jean Guard, an agriculture research scientist at
the U.S. National Poultry Research Center at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were compared with more than 400 publicly available genome sequences of salmonella Kentucky from various parts of the world.

"When we compared our salmonella Kentucky sequences to the international isolates, it corroborated with what we had learned from the Washington
State Department of Health epidemiology data and confirmed that the
patients had picked up infection when they were traveling," Soltys said.



==========================================================================
The research builds off work from 2016, when second-year veterinary
student Carson Sakamoto found most salmonella Kentucky strains isolated
from human patients in Washington state were highly resistant to frontline antibiotics.

Shah said while salmonella Kentucky is one of the most common salmonella
types found in domestic poultry, the bacterium causes less than 100
cases per year in the U.S. It was generally thought salmonella Kentucky
was not a major threat to public health.

However, Shah said if this fluoroquinolone-resistant salmonella Kentucky
from across the globe were to become endemic in the U.S., reported cases
would likely increase, and those experiencing symptoms severe enough
to warrant a doctor's visit would likely be prescribed drugs that would
not work.

"One, you're likely not going to recover with antibiotics. Two, you're
going to disturb your normal bacteria in your body, and it can make your infection worse," Shah said.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate
salmonella causes 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations and
420 deaths every year in the U.S.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Washington_State_University. Original written by Josh Babcock. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Rachel C. Soltys, Carson K. Sakomoto, Hanna N. Oltean, Jean Guard,
Bradd
J. Haley, Devendra H. Shah. High-Resolution Comparative Genomics
of Salmonella Kentucky Aids Source Tracing and Detection of ST198
and ST152 Lineage-Specific Mutations. Frontiers in Sustainable
Food Systems, 2021; 5 DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2021.695368 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210802140119.htm

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