Antibiotic resistance and detection of the fimH gene among Escherichia coli isolates obtained from human and broilers

Broilers are one of the potential sources of bacterial infections particularly Escherichia coli infections in human. Different studies have previously showed genetic similarities between
APEC (avian pathogenic E. coli) strains and human pathogen strains of the microorganism. In this study we evaluate the presence of the fimH virulence gene among human and broiler
isolates of E. coli. In addition the antibiotic susceptibility of the strains was investigated. After collection and identification of the isolates (including 26 human isolates and 60 broilers isolates), at first, total DNA of the pure microorganisms was extracted using boiling method and then DNA samples were subjected to PCR using specific primers for fimH gene. Antibiotic resistance pattern was evaluated by disk diffusion methods for 14 different antibacterial agents. Among 86 E. coli isolates, the fimH gene was detected in 53 (61.62%) isolates. In addition, the isolates showed high resistance to oxacilin (93.02%), colistin (91.86%) and cephalexin (89.53%) respectively. According to the results, the prevalence of the fimH gene among human isolates was significantly (P<0.05) higher than avian isolates. In total, 70 different antibiotic resistance patterns were observed among isolates which showed that there are significant differences between the resistance patterns of different isolates with different sources. It can be due to the use of various antibiotics in treating the complications of this bacterium in humans and livestock.