Shared Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase-Producing Serovars between Agricultural and Aquatic Environments Revealed through Amplicon Sequencing.

The presence of antibiotic-resistant spp. in the environment is of great public health interest, worldwide. Furthermore, its extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strains constitute an emerging global health concern due to their limited treatment options in hospital. Therefore, this study aimed at characterising and tracking nonresistant and ESBL-producing spp. from agricultural settings to nearby water sources highlighting their antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) and virulence factor (VF) distribution using a combination of both culture-dependent and independent methods. Furthermore, this study investigated the diversity and shared serovars among sampled matrices using amplicon sequencing of the invasion gene A () of spp. The results showed that soil had the highest prevalence of spp. (62.5%, 65/104) and ESBL-producing (34.6%, 36/104). For typed ARG, the most commonly detected gene was with 75% (30/40), followed by 67.5% (27/40) 40% (16/40) and 1 30% (12/40) gene; gene was not detected in isolated ESBL-producing spp. For VF, the most detected gene was (96.9%, 38/40), followed by M (17.5%, 7/40), C (40%, 16/40), L (32.5%, 13/40), L 32.5% (13/40) and D 32.5 (13/40). For diversity analysis, soil, manure, irrigation water and nearby freshwater revealed 81, 68, 12 and 9 serovars, respectively. Soil, manure, irrigation water and freshwater stream samples shared five serovars, which indicated circulation of ESBL-producing spp. within the agricultural environment and nearby water sources. Soil is therefore identified as one of the major reservoirs of ESBL-producing spp. It is concluded that agricultural environment contamination may have a direct relationship with the presence of antibiotic-producing in freshwater streams.