Escherichia albertii is an emerging zoonotic foodborne pathogen. Several outbreaks of E. albertii have occurred particularly in Japan. Although birds have been considered as one of the most important reservoirs of this bacterium, information regarding the prevalence in birds is still scanty. We performed a survey of E. albertii in wild birds in Japan, and examined characteristics of the isolates. E. albertii specific gene was detected in 5 cloacal swabs out of 156 birds by PCR. Four E. albertii were isolated from a swallow with 2 different E. albertii strains and 2 pigeons in a flock by XRM-MacConkey agar. These isolates were assigned to biogroup 3, shown no resistance to any antimicrobials tested, and classified into 2 EAO-genotypes (EAOg2 and EAOg33) and untypable. Similar to clinical E. albertii strains, these isolates carried virulence genes including eae (n=4), paa (n=4), Eccdt-I (n=2) and stx2f (n=1) in addition to Eacdt. Interestingly, stx2f genes in a strain were located on an inducible bacteriophage, which can confer the ability to produce Stx2f to E. coli. In conclusion, Japanese wild birds carried E. albertii at the similar levels to the reported prevalence in birds. These isolates may have a potential to cause gastroenteritis in humans.

阿尔伯氏大肠埃希菌是一种新兴的人畜共患食源性病原体。艾伯氏大肠杆菌的几次暴发尤其发生在日本。尽管鸟类被认为是这种细菌最重要的宿主之一，但有关鸟类流行的信息仍然很少。我们对日本野生鸟类中的E. albertii进行了调查，并检查了分离株的特征。通过 PCR 在 156 只鸡的 5 只泄殖腔拭子中检测到E. albertii特异性基因。从燕子中分离出四个E. albertii和 2 个不同的E. albertii用 XRM-MacConkey 琼脂培养的菌株和 2 只鸽子。这些分离株被分配到生物组 3，对所测试的任何抗微生物药物均无耐药性，并分为 2 种 EAO 基因型（EAOg2 和 EAOg33）且不可分型。与临床E. albertii菌株相似，这些分离株除了 Eacdt 外，还携带包括eae ( n=4)、paa (n=4)、Eccdt-I (n=2) 和stx2f (n=1) 的毒力基因。有趣的是，菌株中的stx2f基因位于诱导型噬菌体上，这可以赋予大肠杆菌产生 Stx2f 的能力。总之，日本野鸟携带E. albertii与报告的鸟类患病率相似。这些分离物可能有可能导致人类肠胃炎。