Cases of Isolation of Escherichia albertii Strains from Commercial Quails with Gastroenteritis in Russia

Escherichia albertii is a lactose-negative Escherichia that causes gastritis and enteritis in humans. An analysis of possible sources of infection points out that poultry may be a significant reservoir for this pathogen. The question of whether E. albertii can cause infections in poultry is still unanswered. Our article describes the isolation of E. albertii, for the first time in Russia, from the intestines of birds on a quail farm and a characterization of obtained cultures. We isolated different bacteria from pathological poultry material using bacteriological methods and ruled them out as probable causes for enteritis. The biochemical identification of E. albertii and antibiotic sensitivity were performed using a Vitek-2 Compact instrument. Bacterial identification was carried out using the MALDI-TOF Biotyper instrument. E. albertii-specific genes, virulence factor genes, and microcin genes were detected by real-time PCR. It was concluded that E. albertii isolated from sites of intestinal inflammation are a potential cause of enteritis and high poultry mortality-up to 15% of total livestock for 10- to 20-day-old quails. One of the E. albertii culture differed from the main group of Escherichia by its biochemical properties, and subsequent PCR analysis showed a lack of the intimin gene (eae). We describe the first occasion of infection caused by E. albertii in industrial quails. During the study, it was found that, according to the molecular-genetic and phenotypic properties of isolated strains in quails, there were at least two clonal groups of E. albertii differing in antibiotic resistance, biochemical indices, and presence of the eae (intimin) gene.