Trimethoprim resistance plasmids in Escherichia coli isolated from cases of diarrhoea in cattle, pigs and sheep.

A total of 1572 isolates of Escherichia coli obtained from the faeces of young farm animals with diarrhoea over the period 1980-1983 were screened for resistance to trimethoprim (Tp). Resistance to Tp was detected in 263/954 (28%) of bovine isolates, 59/441 (13%) of porcine isolates and 15/177 (9%) of ovine isolates. Seventy-five resistant isolates from separate outbreaks of infection on farms within a 25 mile radius of Nottingham were examined in detail. Sixty-eight (91%) of the 75 isolates were resistant to greater than 1024 mg Tp/l and 34 (50%) of these 'highly resistant' isolates (45% of total resistant isolates) transferred their Tp resistance to E. coli K12. A further 13 (17%) isolates were demonstrated to carry non-self-transferable plasmids which were capable of being mobilized to E. coli K12 by the broad host range plasmid RP4. Thirty-one self-transferable Tp R plasmids were divided between the following incompatibility groups: IncB (14 plasmids), IncFII (4 plasmids), IncH2 (1 plasmid), IncI alpha (10 plasmids), IncI delta (1 plasmid) and IncP (1 plasmid). In terms of antibiotic resistance patterns and incompatibility properties, many of these plasmids closely resembled those isolated from human patients in the same area, suggesting that there may be a common pool of Tp R plasmids.