Emergence of oxacillinase-181 carbapenemase-producing diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The emergence and spread of carbapenemase-producing bacteria are serious threats to public health. We characterized two OXA-181-producing Escherichia coli isolates from pediatric patients with diarrhea from Ghana. bla_OXA-₁₈₁ was localized on the self-conjugative IncX3-containing plasmid in the E. coli ST410 isolate, belonging to an emerging lineage, and an IncFIC(FII)-containing plasmid in E. coli ST940. The bla_OXA-181-qnrS1 region was found on the IS26 composite transposon, which contained a 366-bp deletion in the region encoding the Rep A protein for the IncX3-containing plasmid. The IncFIC(FII) plasmid was novel and integrated with an approximately 39-kb IncX1 plasmid through conjugal transfer. Both plasmids clustered close to plasmids from Switzerland. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the presence of an IncX3 plasmid containing bla_OXA-181 in strains closely related to the B4/H24RxC clade in Africa, suggesting its emergence and the need to strengthen antimicrobial resistance surveillance.

KEYWORDS:

• ST410
• oxacillinase-181
• diarrheagenic E. coli
• IncX3
• IncFIC(FII) and B4/H24RxC clade

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the support from the staff at the public health laboratory, Sekondi.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED, URL: http://www.amed.go.jp/en/) under Grant Number JP19fm0108010 (SY, TS, SI, RS), 20wm0125007 (SY, TS, SI, RS), 20wm0225004 (TS, RS), 20wm0225013 (TS, RS), and Ohyama Health Foundation (RS). These funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.