Author(s)

Peris Wambugu^1*, John Kiiru², Viviene Matiru³

¹Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
²Centre of Microbiology Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
³Department of Botany, Sub-Department of Medical Microbiology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.

Rivers can act as reservoirs of highly resistant strains and facilitate the dissemination of resistance, virulence and integron 1 genes. A cross-sectional study was carried out where 318 water samples were collected (53 from each site) and from the samples, 318 E. coli isolates were analysed for resistance genes, virulence genes and integron 1 using Polymerase Chain Reaction. 22% of the isolates had bla_TEM, 33% had bla_CTX-M and 28% had bla_CMY. Prevalence of typical Enteropathogenic E. coli strains (carrying both eae and bfp genes) was 5% while the prevalence of atypical Enteropathogenic E. coli (carying only eae) was 1.8%. The prevalence of Enteroaggregative E. coli carrying the aggr genes was 11%. The prevalence of Enterotoxigenic E. coli encoding only lt toxin was 16 (5%) and while those carrying only st toxin was 6.9%. The prevalence of Enteroinvasive E. coli strains encoding as IpaH was 5% while that of strains, adherent invasive E. coli, carrying adherent invasive gene inv was 8.7%. 36% isolates were positive for class 1 integrons which were mostly isolated near the sewage effluent from waste treatment plant. Anthropogenic activities and close proximity to sewage treatment plant were found to play a key role in pollution of water body and accumulation of resistance and virulence genes. These results suggest that waste treatment plant may act as reservoir of resistance, virulence and integron 1 genes and is a potential risk to human and animal health in the region.

Athi River, E. coli, Integron 1, Resistance Genes, Virulence Genes

Wambugu, P. , Kiiru, J. and Matiru, V. (2018) Escherichia coli Harbouring Resistance Genes, Virulence Genes and Integron 1 Isolated from Athi River in Kenya. Advances in Microbiology, 8, 846-858. doi: 10.4236/aim.2018.811056.