Project name: Aeromonas veronii strain:Hv1705

Description: The medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, is used as a post-operative medical tool to reduce venous congestion and salvage tissue. Dominant members of the leech microbiome, Aeromonas spp., are increasingly attracting attention as an agent of human infection. The quinolone ciprofloxacin is usually administered to the patient prior to leech therapy to prevent such infections; however, recently cases describing Aeromonas infections occurring in patients receiving prophylactic ciprofloxacin therapy have been reported. Isolates were collected from shipments from various medicinal-leech suppliers and patient cases. Whole genome comparisons revealed that one clinical wound isolate showed a near clonal relationship to a leech isolate, implicating leeches as the vectors for infection. Deep sequencing of gyrA reveals a persistent ciprofloxacin-resistant population of A. hydrophila in the leech in intraluminal fluid samples collected as early as 2009. Whole genome sequencing suggests that quinolone resistance is due to mutations in gyrA and parC, and the acquisition of plasmid-associated genes, such as the quinolone-resistance gene family and multi-drug resistance efflux pumps. Together, experimental assays and the genomic investigations of quinolone-resistant and susceptible isolates of both A. veronii and A. hydrophila support that the medicinal leeches are indeed the vectors of the infectious agents. We concur with recent literature that cephem-family antibiotics are an effective alternative to ciprofloxacin prophylactic treatment.

Data type: Other

Sample scope: Other

Release date: 2015-12-31

Last updated: 2016-01-01