Prevalence of Streptomycin-Resistant Erwinia amylovora in New York Apple Orchards

Resistance to streptomycin in Erwinia amylovora was first observed in the United States in the 1970s but was not found in New York until 2002, when streptomycin-resistant (SmR) E. amylovora was isolated from orchards in Wayne County. From 2011 to 2014, in total, 591 fire blight samples representing shoot blight, blossom blight, and rootstock blight were collected from 80 apple orchards in New York. From these samples, 1,280 isolates of E. amylovora were obtained and assessed for streptomycin resistance. In all, 34 SmR E. amylovora isolates were obtained from 19 individual commercial orchards. The majority of the resistant isolates were collected from orchards in Wayne County, and the remaining were from other counties in western New York. Of the 34 resistant isolates, 32 contained the streptomycin resistance gene pair strA/strB in the transposon Tn5393 on the nonconjugative plasmid pEA29. This determinant of streptomycin resistance has only been found in SmR E. amylovora isolates from Michigan and the SmR E. amylovora isolates discovered in Wayne County, NY in 2002. Currently, our data indicate that SmR E. amylovora is restricted to counties in western New York and is concentrated in the county with the original outbreak. Because the resistance is primarily present on the nonconjugative plasmid, it is possible that SmR has been present in Wayne County since the introduction in 2002, and has spread within and out of Wayne County to additional commercial growers over the past decade. However, research is still needed to provide in-depth understanding of the origin and spread of the newly discovered SmR E. amylovora to reduce the spread of streptomycin resistance into other apple-growing regions, and address the sustainability of streptomycin use for fire blight management in New York.