Perfil genético de Escherichia coli na avicultura paranaense (filogrupos e APEC)

Abstract

In Brazil the production of chicken meat for human consumption in 2021 reached 14.3 million tons. Due to the great importance of this segment, quality control is essential to avoid losses and ensure the supply of quality products to consumer markets. In poultry farms this quality control is performed by monitoring Escherichia coli bacteria, naturally present in the digestive flora of various animals, but when in unbalance can develop in the chicken APEC-related diseases. In this work we analyzed data of APEC genes and Escherichia coli phylogroups, collected since 2020 in farms that perform quality control or that had APEC outbreaks in the state of Paraná. The methodology used consisted in the isolation of E. coli, followed by the morphological, biochemical and molecular identification of APEC genes and its phylogroups verified in different poultry organs. The objective of this work was to survey these digitally stored data to verify the profile of the genes present and establish relationships between the isolation origins to understand the gene characteristics of these Paraná isolates. Phylogroup A had the most isolates, however most were commensal, while the largest group with APEC isolates was F isolates from red poultry viscera. In addition, respiratory tissues contained the greatest number of APEC present. All isolates classified as belonging to cluster A contained the virulence factors iss and ompT, suggesting a possible relationship and dependence between the genes.