Cheng P, Li F, Liu R, et al. - In this retrospective study, researchers sought to ascertain the prevalence and molecular epidemiology traits of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli (CRE). From pigs and urban rivers, they recovered a total of 593 E. coli isolates from 2009 to 2014 in Heilongjiang Province of China; from these, they selected 40 CRE, including 22 strains isolated from fecal samples of pigs and 18 strains isolated from water samples. From water samples, they identified five NDM-1-positive E. coli isolates. As per genetic environment analysis, all of the NDM-1-positive isolates had a cluster of genes (ISAba125-bla_NDM-1-ble_MBL-ΔtrpF). As per conjugation assays, successful transmission of bla_NDM-1 to E. coli J53 from five donor strains was possible at frequencies of 4.6×10⁻⁵ to 2.6×10⁻². The outcomes suggest a higher overall antimicrobial resistance in E. coli recovered from water samples vs the strains isolated from fecal samples of pigs.