Prevalence, antibiotic resistance, and virulence gene profile of Escherichia coli strains shared between food and other sources in Africa: A systematic review

Vet World Vol.16 October-2023 Article-2

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(10): 2016-2028

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.2016-2028

Eustache C. Hounkpe^1,2, Philippe Sessou¹, Souaïbou Farougou¹, Georges Daube², Véronique Delcenserie², Paulin Azokpota³, and Nicolas Korsak²

1. Communicable Diseases Research Unit, Applied Biology Research Laboratory, Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi, University of Abomey-Calavi, 01 P.O Box 2009 Cotonou, Benin.
2. Department of Food Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, FARAH-Veterinary Public Health, University of Liege, Quartier Vallée 2, 10 Avenue of Cureghem, Sart-Tilman, B-4000 Liege, Belgium.
3. School of Nutrition, Food Sciences, and Technology, Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi, 03 P.O Box 2819, Cotonou, Benin.

Background and Aim: Foodborne diseases caused by Escherichia coli are prevalent globally. Treatment is challenging due to antibiotic resistance in bacteria, except for foodborne infections due to Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, for which treatment is symptomatic. Several studies have been conducted in Africa on antibiotic resistance of E. coli isolated from several sources. The prevalence and distribution of resistant pathogenic E. coli isolated from food, human, and animal sources and environmental samples and their virulence gene profiles were systematically reviewed.

Materials and Methods: Bibliographic searches were performed using four databases. Research articles published between 2000 and 2022 on antibiotic susceptibility and virulence gene profile of E. coli isolated from food and other sources were selected.

Results: In total, 64 articles were selected from 14 African countries: 45% of the studies were conducted on food, 34% on animal samples, 21% on human disease surveillance, and 13% on environmental samples. According to these studies, E. coli is resistant to ~50 antimicrobial agents, multidrug-resistant, and can transmit at least 37 types of virulence genes. Polymerase chain reaction was used to characterize E. coli and determine virulence genes.

Conclusion: A significant variation in epidemiological data was noticed within countries, authors, and sources (settings). These results can be used as an updated database for monitoring E. coli resistance in Africa. More studies using state-of-the-art equipment are needed to determine all resistance and virulence genes in pathogenic E. coli isolated in Africa. Keywords: Africa, antibiotic resistance, Escherichia coli virulence genes, food, systematic review.

Keywords: Africa, antibiotic resistance, Escherichia coli virulence genes, food, systematic review.

How to cite this article: Hounkpe EC, Sessou P, Farougou S, Daube G, Delcenserie V, Azokpota P, and Korsak N (2023) Prevalence, antibiotic resistance, and virulence gene profile of Escherichia coli strains shared between food and other sources in Africa: A systematic review, Veterinary World, 16(10): 2016-2028.

Received: 12-04-2023 Accepted: 23-08-2023 Published online: 07-10-2023

Corresponding author: Eustache C. Hounkpe E-mail: hounkpe7@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.2016-2028

Copyright: Hounkpe, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.