Ready‐to‐eat street food: a potential source for dissemination of multidrug‐resistant Escherichia coli epidemic clones in Quito, Ecuador

Abstract

Ready‐to‐eat food contamination with ESBL‐producing Escherichia coli is a growing health concern. Some of these strains also are epidemic clones and can cause community‐associated infections that are difficult to treat. In this study, the occurrence of ESBL‐producing E. coli contaminated ready‐to‐eat street food in Quito, Ecuador was evaluated. In total, 150 samples were collected randomly in the most crowded sites of the city. In all, 34 samples (34/150; 22·6%) were positive for total thermotolerant (44·5°C) coliforms resistant to cefotaxime. MALDI‐TOF analysis identified that the E. coli was found in 20 food samples (20/34; 59%). ESBL gene blaCTX‐M‐55 was identified in nine isolates, blaCTX‐M‐15 in six isolates, blaCTX‐M‐14 in two isolates, and one isolate each harboured blaCTX‐M‐24, blaCTX‐M‐65, blaCTX‐M‐55 and blaCTX‐M‐8. Phylogenetic groups like A and B1 were the most common, followed by groups D and B2. MLST analysis identified 12 different sequence types (STs), the most common was ST162. Recognized epidemic clonal groups ST410, ST131 and ST744 were encountered. Ready‐to‐eat street food is a potential way of spreading ESBL‐producing E. coli epidemic clones in Quito, Ecuador.