Nature Communications (Jan 2025)

Parameters for one health genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli from Australia

  • Anne E. Watt,
  • Max L. Cummins,
  • Celeste M. Donato,
  • Wytamma Wirth,
  • Ashleigh F. Porter,
  • Patiyan Andersson,
  • Erica Donner,
  • Australian Pathogen Genomics One Health Working Group,
  • Amy V. Jennison,
  • Torsten Seemann,
  • Steven P. Djordjevic,
  • Benjamin P. Howden

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55103-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Abstract Genomics is a cornerstone of modern pathogen epidemiology yet demonstrating transmission in a One Health context is challenging, as strains circulate and evolve within and between diverse hosts and environments. To identify phylogenetic linkages and better define relevant measures of genomic relatedness in a One Health context, we collated 5471 Escherichia coli genome sequences from Australia originating from humans (n = 2996), wild animals (n = 870), livestock (n = 649), companion animals (n = 375), environmental sources (n = 292) and food (n = 289) spanning over 36 years. Of the 827 multi-locus sequence types (STs) identified, 10 STs were commonly associated with cross-source genomic clusters, including the highly clonal ST131, pandemic zoonotic lineages such as ST95, and emerging human ExPEC ST1193. Here, we show that assessing genomic relationships at ≤ 100 SNP threshold enabled detection of cross-source linkage otherwise obscured when applying typical outbreak-oriented relatedness thresholds ( ≤ 20 SNPs) and should be considered in interrogation of One Health genomic datasets.