A growing body of evidence indicates that extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) readily survive wastewater treatment, raising concerns about the public health risks associated with exposure to wastewater-contaminated environments. In this study, E. coli isolates recovered from chlorinated sewage or treated wastewater effluents in Canada were screened for ExPEC virulence markers. Eighty-six isolates were identified as presumptive ExPEC, clustering within major pandemic lineages including ST131, ST95, and ST73 according to multilocus sequence typing analyses. Across the whole, core, and accessory genome, 37 isolates were extremely similar to clinical bloodborne E. coli (BBEC) and neonatal meningitic E. coli (NMEC) strains, suggesting that these wastewater isolates may exhibit a similar phenotypically related pathogenic potential. Interestingly, ExPEC strains also shared accessory gene content with naturalized wastewater strains, suggesting a common genetic capacity for surviving water treatment. Collectively, these findings suggest that E. coli strains that may cause septicemia and meningitis are surviving wastewater treatment and may be transmissible through wastewater effluents.

越来越多的证据表明，肠外致病性大肠杆菌(ExPEC) 很容易在废水处理中存活，这引发了人们对与暴露于废水污染环境相关的公共健康风险的担忧。在这项研究中，从加拿大的氯化污水或处理过的污水中回收的大肠杆菌分离物进行了 ExPEC 毒力标记物的筛选。根据多位点序列分型分析，86 个分离株被鉴定为推定的 ExPEC，聚集在包括 ST131、ST95 和 ST73 在内的主要大流行谱系中。在整个基因组、核心基因组和辅助基因组中，37 个分离株与临床血源性大肠杆菌(BBEC) 和新生儿脑膜炎大肠杆菌极为相似（NMEC）菌株，表明这些废水分离物可能表现出相似的表型相关致病潜力。有趣的是，ExPEC 菌株还与归化废水菌株共享辅助基因含量，这表明在水处理中存在共同的遗传能力。总的来说，这些研究结果表明，可能导致败血症和脑膜炎的大肠杆菌菌株在废水处理中幸存下来，并且可能通过废水排放物传播。