Incidence of ESBL-Producing-Escherichia coli in Poultry Farm Environment and Retail Poultry Meat

Abstract

Received: Revised: Accepted: Published online: July 29, 2018 August 26, 2018 September 03, 2018 September 27, 2018 Antimicrobials are excessively used in Pakistan during broiler poultry production, however, status of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is not known. We report on the frequency of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) –producing-Escherichia coli recovered from samples obtained from poultry farm environment (n=100) and chicken meat samples (n=100) collected at sales point of live bird market in District Peshawar, Pakistan. Phenotypically confirmed ESBL producers were further investigated for the presence of ESBLand carbapenemase-encoding genes and types of integrons. Our results showed that 38.8% (14/36) and 47.6% (20/42) of E. coli recovered from farm environment and chicken meat, respectively, were found to be ESBL producers. PCR based results showed that 30% (6/20), 10% (2/20) and 20% (4/20) of these E. coli from chicken-meat were harboring blaCTXM, blaCTXM-1 and blaSHV2, respectively, while 20% were carrying blaOXA-48 and blaNDM -1. On the other hands, 28.5% (4/14), 28.5% (4/14) and 14.2% (2/14) of E. coli isolated from chicken farm-environment were harboring blaCTXM, blaCTXM-1 and blaSHV2, respectively, while, 28.5% (4/14) and 14.2% (2/14) were carrying blaOXA-48 and blaNDM -1. Integron 2 was PCR amplified from 17 isolates and integron 1 from 16 isolates, while, integron 3 was absent from all. Finally, insertion sequence ISCR1 was PCR-amplified from 15 isolates (41.6%), which was found associated with blaCTXM among 6 (16.6%) isolates suggesting its role in mobilization. Overall, our results suggest a high rate of occurrence of ESBLand carbapenemase-carrying E. coli in poultry farm environment and chicken meat. ©2018 PVJ. All rights reserved