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Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) cause urinary tract and potentially life-threatening invasive infections. Unfortunately, the origins of ExPEC are not always clear. We used genomic data of E. coli isolates from five U.S. government organizations to evaluate potential sources of ExPEC infections. Virulence gene analysis of 38,032 isolates from human, food animal, retail meat, and companion animals classified the subset of 8142 non-diarrheagenic isolates into 40 virulence groups. Groups were identified as low, medium, and high relative risk of containing ExPEC strains, based on the proportion of isolates recovered from humans. Medium and high relative risk groups showed a greater representation of sequence types associated with human disease, including ST-131. Over 90% of food source isolates belonged to low relative risk groups, while >60% of companion animal isolates belonged to medium or high relative risk groups. Additionally, 18 of the 26 most prevalent antimicrobial resistance determinants were more common in high relative risk groups. The associations between antimicrobial resistance and virulence potentially limit treatment options for human ExPEC infections. This study demonstrates the power of large-scale genomics to assess potential sources of ExPEC strains and highlights the importance of a One Health approach to identify and manage these human pathogens.

This cross-sectional study determined the serovars, antimicrobial resistance genes, and virulence factors of Salmonella isolated from hatcheries, broiler farms, processing plants, and retail outlets in Trinidad and Tobago. Salmonella in silico serotyping detected 23 different serovars where Kentucky 20.5% (30/146), Javiana 19.2% (28/146), Infantis 13.7% (20/146), and Albany 8.9% (13/146) were the predominant serovars. There was a 76.0% (111/146) agreement between serotyping results using traditional conventional methods and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in in silico analysis. In silico identification of antimicrobial resistance genes conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, cephalosporins, peptides, sulfonamides, and antiseptics were detected. Multidrug resistance (MDR) was detected in 6.8% (10/146) of the isolates of which 100% originated from broiler farms. Overall, virulence factors associated with secretion systems and fimbrial adherence determinants accounted for 69.3% (3091/4463), and 29.2% (1302/4463) counts, respectively. Ten of 20 isolates of serovar Infantis (50.0%) showed MDR and contained the bla CTX-M-65 gene. This is the first molecular characterization of Salmonella isolates detected along the entire broiler production continuum in the Caribbean region using WGS. The availability of these genomes will help future source tracking during epidemiological investigations associated with Salmonella foodborne outbreaks in the region and worldwide.