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Similar genotypic and phenotypic profiles were found for both species,
confirming that there was a common source of antimicrobial-resistant
E. coli
. The
prevalence of VFs is in agreement with other studies conducted on human- and
animal-origin strains (F
´
ria et al.
2000
; Johnson et al.
2004
). As to the association
between VFs and phylogenetic background,
hlyA
was only present in phylogroup
B2. The latter may indicate that
hly
presence is associated with high pathogenicity
of the strains, not only owing to the toxin produced but also because the strains
harboring the gene may also be carriers of other VFs. The strains examined belong
prevalently to group B2 with a discrete virulence score, suggesting that these strains
are more virulent than non-B2 strains. In accordance with other authors (Johnson
et al.
2004
; Rijavec et al.
2006
), we observed a strong correlation between antibiotic
susceptibility and phylogroup B2, while we found no relationship between antibi-
otic resistance and low occurrence of VFs (Johnson et al.
2004
). In conclusion, our
data confirm that antibiotic-resistant UPEC strains continue to increase in cats and
dogs, thus suggesting the need for the careful use of antimicrobials to treat UTIs in
companion animals.
Acknowledgments The study was supported by a grant from University research MURST
ex-60%.
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