Emergence and genomic characteristics of multi- drug- resistant Salmonella in pet turtles and children with diarrhoea

Pet turtles are a well- recognized source of human salmonellosis, posing a threat to human health, particularly children who commonly keep pet turtles. To date, the genomic characteristics of Salmonella among pet turtles and children has not been well described. We investigated the prevalence, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and genomic characteristics of Salmonella from pet turtles in Beijing, China. In total, 9.6 % (46/480) of pet turtles were positive for Salmonella with S. Thompson being the dominant serovar (19/46) in 2019. Moreover, 80.4 % of Salmonella were multi - drug resistant (MDR) and 60.7 % were resistant to ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfonamides and tetracycline (ASSuT). We further compared the genomes of S. Thompson isolates from pet turtles (n=19) with those from children with diarrhoea (n=28) in the same region and year, most of which were sequence type (ST)26, with one novel ST7937 identified from a child- associated isolate. S. Thompson isolates from children with diarrhoea exhibited less resistance than isolates from pet turtles. Most MDR isolates possessed multiple AMR genes, including the AmpC beta-lactamase-encoding genes blaDHA-15 and blaDHA-1 which co- occurred with the IncA/C and IncHI plasmid replicon types. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the blaDHA-15 gene has been detected from Salmonella. Several pet turtle- associated S. Thompson isolates comprised phylogenetically close clusters with those from children with diarrhoea (<20 SNP differences). Bayesian analysis demonstrated that the Chinese ST26 S. Thompson strains had a recent evolutionary history and evolved into two major clades, with one clade acquiring various resistant plasmids. Our findings revealed the emergence of MDR Salmonella among pet turtles in China and provided evidence for the interspecies transmission of S. Thompson.