Hospital outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales associated with a bla OXA-48 plasmid carried mostly by Escherichia coli ST399
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Published version
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
A hospital outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales was detected by routine surveillance. Whole genome sequencing and subsequent analysis revealed a conserved promiscuous blaOXA-48 carrying plasmid as the defining factor within this outbreak. Four different species of Enterobacterales were involved in the outbreak. Escherichia coli ST399 accounted for 35 of all the 55 isolates. Comparative genomics analysis using publicly available E. coli ST399 genomes showed that the outbreak E. coli ST399 isolates formed a unique clade. We developed a mathematical model of pOXA-48-like plasmid transmission between host lineages and used it to estimate its conjugation rate, giving a lower bound of 0.23 conjugation events per lineage per year. Our analysis suggests that co-evolution between the pOXA-48-like plasmid and E. coli ST399 could have played a role in the outbreak. This is the first study to report carbapenem-resistant E. coli ST399 carrying blaOXA-48 as the main cause of a plasmid-borne outbreak within a hospital setting. Our findings suggest complementary roles for both plasmid conjugation and clonal expansion in the emergence of this outbreak.
Date Issued
2022-04-20
Date Acceptance
2021-08-24
Citation
Microbial Genomics, 2022, 8 (4)
ISSN
2057-5858
Publisher
Microbiology Society
Journal / Book Title
Microbial Genomics
Volume
8
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Crown Copyright. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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Sponsor
Rosetrees Trust
Subjects
0604 Genetics
0605 Microbiology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 000675
Date Publish Online
2022-04-20