TY - JOUR AU - Hameed, Muhammad Fazal AU - Chen, Yanan AU - Bilal, Hazrat AU - Khan, Sabir AU - Ge, Honghua AU - Xiaofang, Chen AU - Gu, Pengying PY - 2022/04/30 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The Co-occurrence of mcr-3 and fosA3 in IncP plasmid in ST131 Escherichia coli: A novel case JF - The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries JA - J Infect Dev Ctries VL - 16 IS - 04 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.3855/jidc.15943 UR - https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/35544623 SP - 622-629 AB - <p>Introduction: Plasmid-mediated colistin resistance genes, especially <em>mcr-3</em> combined with the fosfomycin resistance gene <em>fosA3</em>, are a grave health concern. Our study was designed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of the combination of <em>mcr-3</em> and <em>fosA3 </em>in Anhui province, China.</p><p>Methodology: A total of 127 multi-drug-resistant (MDR) <em>E. coli</em> strains were assessed for antibiotic resistance/sensitivity to detect <em>mcr-3</em> and <em>fosA3</em> using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing. The genes of interest were conjugated using EC600, and replicon and sequence types (STs) were identified by PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Cluster similarity and genomic relatedness among the positive isolates were confirmed by Xbal PFGE.</p><p>Results: The processed <em>E. coli</em> isolates were highly resistant to the tested antibiotics; the prevalence of <em>mcr-3</em> was 0.78% in the transferable IncP-type plasmid in ST131, whereas<em> fosA3</em> prevalence was 38.58% among different transferable plasmids, including IncFIIK, IncFII and IncA/C, and in various STs including ST69, ST1193, ST12, ST46, ST57, ST1196, ST38, ST95, ST131, ST7584 and ST10184. Both were successfully transferred to EC600. The Xbal PFGE cluster exposed similarities among the STs.</p><p>Conclusions: Our results show that to control the spread of colistin and fosfomycin resistance genes in human pathogens, the ban on colistin must be continued in animal feeding farms not only in China but around the world; additionally, awareness platforms on the use of colistin must be implemented and strict policies in poultry and pig farms must be maintained. Furthermore, fosfomycin misuse by patients and overuse by physicians must be strictly managed to stop the spread of fosfomycin resistance.</p> ER -