A workforce of scientists developed a brand new genomic method to hint the origins of E. coli infections. They estimated that 480,000 to 640,000 urinary tract infections within the US every year might consequence from foodborne E. coli strains. While it’s identified that foodborne E. coli may cause diarrhea, the thought of it inflicting urinary tract infections is comparatively new. The research gives sturdy proof that dangerous E. coli strains are transmitted from meals animals to people via the meals provide, inflicting critical sickness.
A brand new research means that E. coli from meat merchandise could also be answerable for tons of of hundreds of urinary tract infections within the U.S. every year.
A workforce of scientists, led by Lance Price and Cindy Liu from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, developed a brand new genomic strategy for monitoring the origins of E. coli infections. Using this methodology, the workforce estimated that between 480,000 and 640,000 urinary tract infections within the United States every year could also be brought on by foodborne E. coli strains.
“We’re used to the idea that foodborne E. coli can cause outbreaks of diarrhea, but the concept of foodborne E. coli causing urinary tract infections seems strange—that is, until you recognize that raw meat is often riddled with the E. coli strains that cause these infections,” mentioned Price, a professor of environmental and occupational well being and director of the GW Antibiotic Resistance Action Center who previously was a researcher at Northern Arizona University. “Our study provides compelling evidence that dangerous E. coli strains are making their way from food animals to people through the food supply and making people sick—sometimes really sick.”
E. coli is way and away the most typical reason for urinary tract infections, inflicting upwards of 85 % of instances every year. Women are at higher threat of creating UTIs, which might vary from easy bladder infections to life-threatening bloodstream infections.
A scanning electron micrograph of Escherichia coli. Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
E. coli can reside in and infect folks and animals, together with animals raised for meat within the U.S. When meals animals are slaughtered, the micro organism that inhabit their guts—together with E. coli—can contaminate the meat merchandise and put folks in danger for publicity.
Data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggests {that a} majority of uncooked meat merchandise are contaminated with E. coli. Currently, solely particular forms of diarrhea-causing E. coli, akin to E. coli O157:H7, are monitored with any seriousness within the U.S., however this new analysis means that different strains may pose critical well being dangers.
In this research, the researchers collected uncooked hen, turkey and pork bought from main grocery retailer chains in Flagstaff and remoted E. coli from these meat samples. At the identical time, the researchers, who started the undertaking whereas employed at NAU’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI), collected urine and blood E. coli isolates from sufferers hospitalized at Northern Arizona Healthcare’s Flagstaff Medical Center for urinary tract infections.
By analyzing the genomes of E. coli from meat and people from folks, the analysis workforce recognized segments of E. coli DNA unique to strains that colonize food animals versus humans, then developed a new predictive model to differentiate E. coli from the two sources.
Previous work by the same team, investigating a single sequence type of E. coli, had linked contaminated meat to urinary tract infections. In the latest study, the team used their new predictive model to look at all E. coli sequence types and showed that about 8 percent of E. coli urinary tract infections in the Flagstaff area could be attributed to meat.
Scaling from Flagstaff to the U.S. population overall, suggests that foodborne E. coli may cause hundreds of thousands of urinary tract infections across the U.S. every year, the researchers note.
“This unprecedented study design, based upon intensive food sampling of an isolated community and the engagement of their dominant healthcare provider, is a powerful approach to public health research,” Paul Keim, a professor of microbiology at Northern Arizona University and co-author of the study, said. “The study design, along with advancements in genomic technologies, allowed us to establish the linkages between food sources and the clinical cases. The conclusions from this model situation will affect public health practices worldwide.”
The foodborne E. coli strains identified in the current study were not only associated with urinary tract infections but were also capable of causing serious kidney and bloodstream infections. Left unchecked, E. coli bloodstream infections can be deadly. It is estimated that between 36,000 and 40,000 people die from E. coli bloodstream infections in the U.S. each year, but it is currently not known what portion of these originate from foodborne exposures.
“People often dismiss bladder infections as minor annoyances, but the bladder is a major gateway to patients’ kidneys and bloodstream,” said Liu, associate professor of environmental and occupational health co-director of the GW Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and former researcher at PMI. “People over 55 and vulnerable populations such as cancer and transplant patients are at the highest risk for life-threatening blood infections, but young, healthy people are also at risk.”
The study suggests producers and the FDA could do a better job of monitoring potentially dangerous pathogens in food, most notably raw meat sold in grocery stores throughout the country. At the same time, consumers can take steps to limit their exposure to contaminated food. For example, home cooks should wash their hands carefully when preparing or handling raw meat and use separate surfaces to prepare raw and cooked foods, the authors say.
The study, “Using source-associated mobile genetic elements to identify zoonotic extraintestinal E. coli infections,” was published online March 23 in the journal One Health. The GW team led a multi-center group of researchers who collaborated on this paper. Northern Arizona University collaborated on the E. coli strain processing and genome sequencing, while the UTI E. coli were collected by the clinical microbiology team at the Flagstaff Medical Center led by former lab manager Lori Gauld. Bioinformatic analysis leading to the source conclusions were performed at GW.
Reference: “Using source-associated mobile genetic elements to identify zoonotic extraintestinal E. coli infections” by Cindy M. Liu, Maliha Aziz, Daniel E. Park, Zhenke Wu, Marc Stegger, Mengbing Li, Yashan Wang, Kara Schmidlin, Timothy J. Johnson, Benjamin J. Koch, Bruce A. Hungate, Lora Nordstrom, Lori Gauld, Brett Weaver, Diana Rolland, Sally Statham, Brantley Hall, Sanjeev Sariya, Gregg S. Davis, Paul S. Keim, James R. Johnson and Lance B. Price, 28 February 2023, One Health.
DOI: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100518
The study was supported by GW, NAU, the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health and the Cowden Endowment for Food Microbiology.
