Astrid Bethe

• Dr.
• Umweltbundesamt, Germany

Background/Objectives: While antibiotic usage in farm animals has been systematically monitored and reduced in many countries, including Germany, data on companion animals such as dogs and cats remain scarce. To address this gap, a study was conducted in Germany to analyze patterns of antibiotic use in dogs and cats. Methods: Antibiotic usage data...

Objectives Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a worldwide challenge, threatening global health. The objective of this research was to determine the 3rd generation cephalosporin resistance (3GCR) proportion in Escherichia (E.) coli isolated from clinical samples of dogs and cats in Germany. Methods The study utilized result data from antimicrobia...

Continued detection of Panton-Valentine leukocidin–positive Staphylococcus aureus in samples from a family with severe repeated skin infections and their pet cat suggests transmission between the family and the cat. Decolonizing the pet led to successful elimination of the bacteria from the household. Clinicians should consider pet cats as possible...

Background MRSA is a major contributor to AMR-related deaths. The WHO’s global action plan emphasizes a One Health approach, acknowledging the connection between humans and their companion animals. It is agreed on that comprehensive AMR surveillance is needed. Objectives This study provides a large-scale overview of MRSA occurrence in cats and d...

The occurrence of antimicrobial resistance due to the use of antimicrobials is considered to be a main cause for treatment failure of bacterial infections in humans and animals. The right of German veterinarians to use and prescribe medications such as antimicrobials is regulated by the Regulation of Veterinary Pharmacies (TÄHAV). The aim of this s...

Phenotypic susceptibility testing of Escherichia (E.) coli is an essential tool to gain a better understanding of the potential impact of biocide selection pressure on antimicrobial resistance. We, therefore, determined the biocide and antimicrobial susceptibility of 216 extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing (ESBL) and 177 non-ESBL E. coli isolat...

Background Escherichia coli is an opportunistic pathogen which colonizes various host species. However, to what extent genetic lineages of E. coli are adapted or restricted to specific hosts and the genomic determinants of such adaptation or restriction is poorly understood. Results We randomly sampled E. coli isolates from four countries (Germany...

Previous research on methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) belonging to livestock-associated (LA-) sequence type (ST) 398, isolated from pigs and their local surroundings, indicated that differences between these MSSA and their methicillin resistant predecessors (MRSA) are often limited to the absence of the staphylococcal cassette c...

Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida play important roles in the bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex.1,2 Isolates of these species, harbouring multiresistance-mediating integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs), such as ICEPmu1 and ICEMh1 among others, have been identified in North America,3–6 but not yet in European countries. I...

Escherichia coli is an opportunistic pathogen that can colonize or infect various host species. There is a significant gap in our understanding to what extent genetic lineages of E. coli are adapted or restricted to specific hosts. In addition, genomic determinants underlying such host specificity are unknown.By analyzing a randomly sampled collect...

Escherichia coli ST58 has recently emerged as a globally disseminated uropathogen that often progresses to sepsis. Unlike most pandemic extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), which belong to pathogenic phylogroup B2, ST58 belongs to the environmental/commensal phylogroup B1. Here, we present a pan-genomic analysis of a global collection of 75...

A total of 215 isolates from infections of dogs and cats, including 49 Enterococcus faecalis, 37 Enterococcus faecium, 59 Escherichia coli, 56 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 14 Acinetobacter baumannii, were investigated for their susceptibility to 27 (Gram-positive bacteria) or 20 (Gram-negative bacteria) antimicrobial agents/combinations of antimicro...

A total of 114 Staphylococcus isolates from various infections of companion animals, including 43 feline Staphylococcus aureus, 19 canine S. aureus, 11 feline Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and 41 canine S. pseudintermedius were investigated for (i) their susceptibility to 24 antimicrobial agents and three combinations of antimicrobial agents by b...

Biocides are essential to prevent foodborne zoonotic diseases. However, concerns have been raised that their use may contribute to the development and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria along the food production chain and in healthcare settings. In the research project BiozAR, we investigate the susceptibility of the indicator organism E. coli...

Introduction. Biocides have been applied as disinfectants for decades and play a major role in the prevention of zoonotic diseases in healthcare settings and the food production chain. However, concerns have been raised that their use may contribute to the development and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Therefore, we investigated the susce...

The increasing rate of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in pathogenic bacteria is a global threat to human and veterinary medicine. Beyond antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) might be an alternative to inhibit the growth of bacteria, including AMR pathogens, on different surfaces. Biofilm formation, which starts out as bacterial adhesion, pose...

To prevent economic losses due to post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) in industrial pig production, zinc (Zn) feed additives have been widely used, especially since awareness has risen that the regular application of antibiotics promotes buildup of antimicrobial resistance in both commensal and pathogenic bacteria. In a previous study on 179 Escherichia co...

Strategies to reduce economic losses associated with post-weaning diarrhea in pig farming include high-level dietary zinc oxide supplementation. However, excessive usage of zinc oxide in the pig production sector was found to be associated with accumulation of multidrug resistant bacteria in these animals, presenting an environmental burden through...

Among enterococci, Enterococcus faecalis occurs ubiquitously, with the highest incidence of human and animal infections. The high genetic plasticity of E. faecalis complicates both molecular investigations and phylogenetic analyses. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) enables unraveling of epidemiological linkages and putative transmission events between...

Bacteriophages play an important role in the evolution of bacterial pathogens. A phage-mediated transfer of stx-genes to atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (aEPEC) which are prevalent in different hosts, would convert them to enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). We decided to confirm this hypothesis experimentally to provide conclusive evidence that aE...

Background Outbreaks of a Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS) like disease causing large mortalities in camels (Camelus dromedarius) in Asia and in Africa have been reported since 1890. Yet the aetiology of this condition remains elusive. This study is the first to apply state of the art molecular methods to shed light on the nasopharyngeal carrier state...

Background and AimEnterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains are involved in piglet post-weaning diarrhea. Prophylactic measures including probiotics have been examined in infection experiments with live piglets. In the present study, we have tested whether the early effects of ETEC infection can also be evoked and studied in a model in which...

To contribute to the understanding of multiresistant bacteria, a 'One Health' approach in estimating the rate of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli and getting insights into the transmission from clinical settings to the surrounding environment was employed by collecting fecal samples of dogs in a public area. Isolat...

As a re-emerging disease, HS was detected in summer 2010 in fallow deer, cattle and pigs for the first time in Germany since 1986.

5-8 Oct. 2014,

Objectives: To investigate the clinical relevance and molecular epidemiology of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Klebsiella species in animals. Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibilities and presence of ESBLs were examined among Klebsiella spp. (n = 1519) from clinical samples (>1200 senders from Germany and other European countries)...

To discern the relevance of ST648 extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli as a putative new group of multiresistant and extraintestinal pathogenic strains in animals, its frequency, ESBL types, antimicrobial resistance patterns and virulence gene (VG) profiles should be determined and compared with ST131 strains from the sam...

Feed supplementation with the probiotic Enterococcus faecium for piglets has been found to reduce pathogenic gut microorganisms. Since Escherichia coli is among the most important pathogens in pig production, we performed comprehensive analyses to gain further insight into the influence of E. faecium NCIMB 10415 on porcine intestinal E. coli. A tot...

Escherichia coli is a highly diverse bacterial species, with atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (aEPEC) causing intestinal disease in both human and animal hosts. Here, we report the first complete genome sequence of an aEPEC strain of sequence type ST794 and serotype Ont:H7, isolated from a diseased piglet.

To evaluate the possible occurrence of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. strains in domestic animals. Veterinary clinical E. coli (n = 1175) and Klebsiella spp. (n = 136) isolates consecutively collected from livestock and companion animals in Germany from June 2012 to October 2012 were screened for their susceptibility t...

Brown rats, Rattus norvegicus, are synanthropic and inhabit urban infrastructures.…

Frequent contact with human waste and liquid manure from intensive livestock breeding, and the increased loads of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that result, are believed to be responsible for the high carriage rates of ESBL-producing E. coli found in birds of prey (raptors) in Central Europe. To test this hypothesis against the influence of avian m...

Results of minimal inhibitory concentration testing of avian ESBL-producing E. coli (mg/L). (DOC)

Urban rats present a global public health concern as they are considered a reservoir and vector of zoonotic pathogens, including Escherichia coli. In view of the increasing emergence of antimicrobial resistant E. coli strains and the on-going discussion about environmental reservoirs, we intended to analyse whether urban rats might be a potential s...

Clin Microbiol Infect 2012; 18: 646–655 The possible zoonotic spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria is controversial. This review discusses global molecular epidemiological data combining both analyses of the chromosomal background, using multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and analyses of plasmid (episomal) extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)...

Characteristics of strains selected for cell adhesion assay (n = 27) and reference strains.

Maximum Parsimony based clustering analysis of the concatenated sequences of the 7 genes used for MLST. Reference scale of tree is equal to 1 nucleotide substitution. Maximum Parsimony based clustering analysis of the concatenated sequences of the 7 genes used for MLST. Reference scale of tree is equal to 1 nucleotide substitution.

Ruminants, in particular bovines, are the primary reservoir of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), but whole genome analyses of the current German ESBL-producing O104:H4 outbreak strain of sequence type (ST) 678 showed this strain to be highly similar to enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). Strains of the EAEC pathotype are basically adapted to the...

Pasteurella multocida can cause a variety of diseases in various species of mammals and birds throughout the world but nothing is known about its importance for wild great apes. In this study we isolated P. multocida from wild living, habituated chimpanzees from Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. Isolates originated from two chimpanzees that died du...

Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL)-producing Gram-negative bacteria pose a serious threat to Public Health in human medicine as well as increasingly in the veterinary context worldwide. Several studies reported the transmission of zoonotic multidrug resistant bacteria between food-producing animals and humans, whilst the contribution of compa...

Hemorrhagic septicaemia, an acute disease caused by P multocida capsular type B which is rarely detected in Europe, caused considerable losses in fallow deer, cattle and pigs within a region along the border of the federal states Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt in the summer of 2010. Clinical appearances and diagnostic findings are presented and poss...

The isolation of Escherichia coli from wild birds in Germany revealed the occurrence of four CTX-M-15-producing strains from four different birds (2.3% of 172 isolates). CTX-M producers were recovered from two Eurasian Blackbirds, one Rock Pigeon and a Greater White-fronted Goose. All CTX-M-producing E. coli revealed a clonal relationship as determ...

Background The increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in human and veterinary medicine is accompanied by a co-emergence of multiresistant bacteria in wildlife species. As wildlife animals are known to disseminate bacteria of human and animal health concern, they could likewise contribute to the dissemination of multiresistant bacteria. T...

Background In recent years multiresistant bacterial pathogens, including extended spectrum ß-lactamases producing (ESBL) Enterobacteriaceae spp. have become a serious problem in the treatment of infectious diseases worldwide. While the increas- ing fnding of ESBL producing E. coli among companion animals underlines their likely role as reservoi...

Background: Decades of extensive use of antimicrobials gave microorganisms the chance of adaptation. Extended spectrum β lactamase (ESBL) producing Escherichia coli , resistant to many frequently used antimicrobial agents, are now emerging in both, human and veterinary medicine. We describe various approaches that have been performed to determine t...

Background Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major nosocomial pathogen responsible for urinary, respiratory, soft tissue and bloodstream infections in humans and animals, often encoun- tered by serious therapeutic failures due to the occurrence of multiresistant strains. During the last decades, a dramatic increase of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (E...

Background In the last decade an explosive spread of E. coli producing CTX-M-type extended-spectrum β-lactamases has occurred worldwide. This emerging public-health concern is quite well explored for human clinical settings, whereas only few reports are available documenting the presence and characteristics of ESBL producing E. coli in animals...

A total of 382 porcine Pasteurella multocida strains, isolated from cases of pneumonia and progressive atrophic rhinitis (PAR) as well as from clinically healthy pigs of more than 150 German husbandries were characterized by detection of virulence-associated genes (VAGs) and ribotyping to understand the relationships between "commensal" and "pathog...

E. coli infections in avian species have become an economic threat to the poultry industry worldwide. Several factors have been associated with the virulence of E. coli in avian hosts, but no specific virulence gene has been identified as being entirely responsible for the pathogenicity of avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC). Needless to say, the chick...

To learn more about the molecular biology of Pasteurella multocida 289 strains isolated from various clinically healthy and diseased hosts were examined for capsule biosynthesis genes (capA, B, D, E, and F) and 14 virulence associated genes by PCR and DNA-DNA-hybridization. As expected, capsule type A strains were highly adapted to bovines (92.3%)...