Comprehensive Analysis of Escherichia coli in Bovine Urinary Tract Infections: Serotypes, Antibiotic Resistance, and Virulence Gene Profiles

Widespread emergence of multidrug-resistant and highly virulent uro- pathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) strains pose a significant crisis for both human and animal populations worldwide. Aim of the present study was to characterize Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) strains isolated from urinary tract infected (UTI) bovines and to understand the distribution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in northern part of India. A cross-sectional study was carried out with sampling 17 randomly selected husbandry setups in 6 districts representing two agroclimatic zones. Out of 254 suspected animals from UTI, 105 animals found to be affected with UTI based on clinical examination, routine urine, culture testing and ultrasonography. Among the 105 affected animals, E. coli was isolated from 47 animals turning out to be 44.76% positivity. A total of 13 serotypes of E. coli were identified with maximum occurrence of O156 (23.40%) serotype. Among 13 serotypes isolated, five serotypes viz. O5, O128, O83, O11, and O159 are zoonotic important and are of public health concern. Antimicrobial resistance gene profiling depicted 100% occurrence of tet (A) and gyr A phenotype in E. coli isolates. Remarkably, meropenem demonstrated the highest efficacy against the isolates, with 89.6% sensitivity. Unfortunately, 85.10% of the tested isolates displayed multidrug resistance, and all isolates carried the Fim H (100%) gene and two isolates carried hly A gene. Our findings emphasize genetic diversity and wide dispersion of zoonotically significant multidrug-resistant, virulent uropathogenic E. coli strains among dairy animals.