Climate-driven co-evolution of antimicrobial resistance and virulence in Escherichia coli on dairy farms: unraveling adaptive genetic signatures with novel SSCP-PCR.

ABSTRACT: This study addresses a critical One Health challenge by investigating the epidemiological and genetic drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in E. coli from 290 clinical bovine samples. On Egyptian dairy farms, our findings revealed that while calf diarrhea peaked during the winter, a higher rate of multidrug resistance was consistently observed in isolates from the summer, directly linking seasonal pressures to AMR dissemination. Strikingly, a mastitis isolate was confirmed as the highly virulent E. coli O157:H7 serotype, harboring the Shiga toxin genes stx1 and stx2, underscoring a direct and significant public health risk. To dissect the molecular basis of these trends, we pioneered the use of a novel Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism Polymerase Chain Reaction (SSCP-PCR) assay

SUBMITTER: El-Shenawy FA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12568838 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature