Aspectos fenotí­picos de amostras de Burkhoderia pseudomallei isoladas de uma microepidemia do municí­pio de Tejuçuoca-Ce

Abstract

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a Gram-negative non-fermentative bacilli, environmental saprophyte able to cause melioidosis on men and animals. The disease is considered endemic in several countries, especially in Thailand and Australia. The bacteria was isolated and identified for the first time in Brazil, february 2003, from four children that lived in a place called Tejuçuoca, Ceará. This work consists of the phenotypic characterization of 3 strains of B. pseudomallei isolated from the patients from Tejuçuoca. The main aim of this study is to compare the data from these samples with the ones from the literature. It was assessed: the colonies morphology in different culture mediums, assimilation of L-arabinose, manual and semi-automatized biochemical tests in API 20NE, antibacterial sensitivity test and diagnosis by PCR, from bacterial cultures. In the obtained results, it was observed the morphological pattern of B. pseudomallei in blood agar, chocolate, Ashdown, Mac Conkey, CLED and trypticase soy agar. The strains 1 and 3 were classified as mucoid and the strain 2 as wrinkled. The three strains had shown the usual phenotypic patterns of B. pseudomallei as much in biochemical manual tests: motility, growth at 42°C, positive oxidase and resistance to polimixin B, as in the API 20NE Diagnosis Kit. In this last one, there was difference in the esculin test among the strains, when the reading was carried out with 48 hours, which did not change on the final identification. All of the three strains were unable to metabolize the carbohydrate L-arabinose, when tested in minimum medium salts and API 20NE, which is a characteristic of virulent strains of B. pseudomallei and is also used to differ this species from B. thailandensis, that is able to use the carbohydrate. The three isolates had shown a poor sensitivity pattern from disk diffusion on TSA, which were resistant to gentamicin, cefalotin, ciprofloxacin (one strain presented intermediate resistance) and sulfa-trimethoprim; two strains presented intermediate sensitivity to ceftriaxone. All of them were sensitive to piperacilin-tazobactam, ticarcilin-clavulanate, ceftazidime, imipenem, tetracycline and chloramphenicol. A modified extraction protocol based on phenol-chloroform was used to obtain DNA and later to test it by PCR, which had shown a 718 bp product, what also confirmed the diagnosis of the organisms by molecular method. The study confirms the presence of B. pseudomallei in Brazil with similar phenotype to that described in the international literature.