Isolation and Characterization of Escherichia albertii from Environmental Water in Akita Prefecture, Japan

Escherichia albertii is a newly emerging food-borne pathogen. However, infection routes to patients remain unclear. In the present study, we aimed to isolate and characterize E. albertii from environmental water in Akita Prefecture of Japan. E. albertii was detected in 16 of 52 samples by real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, and a total of 13 E. albertii strains were isolated from 9 samples. None of isolates showed the properties of biogroup 1 or 2 described previously on indole production and lysine decarboxylase activity. Susceptibility testing against 11 antimicrobial agents showed that one isolate was resistant only to ampicillin (7.7%). All isolates were positive for eae and cdt as virulence genes, but were negative for stx, including stx2f. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis showed that E. albertii isolates were genetically heterogeneous, but two isolates from environmental water had the similarity of >80% to some E. albertii strains from humans. These results suggest that E. albertii derived from environmental water has the potential to infect humans.