TY - JOUR T1 - Evaluation of Escherichia coli isolates from healthy chickens to determine their potential risk to poultry and human health. AU - Stromberg,Zachary R, AU - Johnson,James R, AU - Fairbrother,John M, AU - Kilbourne,Jacquelyn, AU - Van Goor,Angelica, AU - Curtiss,Roy,Rd AU - Mellata,Melha, Y1 - 2017/07/03/ PY - 2017/03/15/received PY - 2017/06/16/accepted PY - 2017/7/4/entrez PY - 2017/7/4/pubmed PY - 2017/10/3/medline SP - e0180599 EP - e0180599 JF - PloS one JO - PLoS One VL - 12 IS - 7 N2 - Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains are important pathogens that cause diverse diseases in humans and poultry. Some E. coli isolates from chicken feces contain ExPEC-associated virulence genes, so appear potentially pathogenic; they conceivably could be transmitted to humans through handling and/or consumption of contaminated meat. However, the actual extraintestinal virulence potential of chicken-source fecal E. coli is poorly understood. Here, we assessed whether fecal E. coli isolates from healthy production chickens could cause diseases in a chicken model of avian colibacillosis and three rodent models of ExPEC-associated human infections. From 304 E. coli isolates from chicken fecal samples, 175 E. coli isolates were screened by PCR for virulence genes associated with human-source ExPEC or avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC), an ExPEC subset that causes extraintestinal infections in poultry. Selected isolates genetically identified as ExPEC and non-ExPEC isolates were assessed in vitro for virulence-associated phenotypes, and in vivo for disease-causing ability in animal models of colibacillosis, sepsis, meningitis, and urinary tract infection. Among the study isolates, 13% (40/304) were identified as ExPEC; the majority of these were classified as APEC and uropathogenic E. coli, but none as neonatal meningitis E. coli. Multiple chicken-source fecal ExPEC isolates resembled avian and human clinical ExPEC isolates in causing one or more ExPEC-associated illnesses in experimental animal infection models. Additionally, some isolates that were classified as non-ExPEC were able to cause ExPEC-associated illnesses in animal models, and thus future studies are needed to elucidate their mechanisms of virulence. These findings show that E. coli isolates from chicken feces contain ExPEC-associated genes, exhibit ExPEC-associated in vitro phenotypes, and can cause ExPEC-associated infections in animal models, and thus may pose a health threat to poultry and consumers. SN - 1932-6203 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/28671990/Evaluation_of_Escherichia_coli_isolates_from_healthy_chickens_to_determine_their_potential_risk_to_poultry_and_human_health_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -