Antibiotic Resistance of Acinetobacter spp. Isolates from the River Danube: Susceptibility Stays High

Clemens Kittinger, Alexander Kirschner, Michaela Lipp, Rita Baumert, Franz Mascher, Andreas H. Farnleitner and Gernot E. Zarfel
Additional contact information
Clemens Kittinger: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstraße 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
Alexander Kirschner: Institute for Hygiene and Applied Immunology, Water Hygiene, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Michaela Lipp: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstraße 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
Rita Baumert: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstraße 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
Franz Mascher: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstraße 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
Andreas H. Farnleitner: Interuniversity Cooperation Centre for Water and Health, Vienna University of Technology, 1060 Vienna, Austria
Gernot E. Zarfel: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University Graz, Neue Stiftingtalstraße 2, 8010 Graz, Austria

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Acinetobacter spp. occur naturally in many different habitats, including food, soil, and surface waters. In clinical settings, Acinetobacter poses an increasing health problem, causing infections with limited to no antibiotic therapeutic options left. The presence of human generated multidrug resistant strains is well documented but the extent to how widely they are distributed within the Acinetobacter population is unknown. In this study, Acinetobacter spp. were isolated from water samples at 14 sites of the whole course of the river Danube. Susceptibility testing was carried out for 14 clinically relevant antibiotics from six different antibiotic classes. Isolates showing a carbapenem resistance phenotype were screened with PCR and sequencing for the underlying resistance mechanism of carbapenem resistance. From the Danube river water, 262 Acinetobacter were isolated, the most common species was Acinetobacter baumannii with 135 isolates. Carbapenem and multiresistant isolates were rare but one isolate could be found which was only susceptible to colistin. The genetic background of carbapenem resistance was mostly based on typical Acinetobacter OXA enzymes but also on VIM-2. The population of Acinetobacter ( baumannii and non -baumannii ) revealed a significant proportion of human-generated antibiotic resistance and multiresistance, but the majority of the isolates stayed susceptible to most of the tested antibiotics.

Keywords: Acinetobacter; JDS3; river; water; carbapenemases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/52/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/52/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2017:i:1:p:52-:d:124838

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().