Occurrence of antibiotic resistance among Enterobacterales isolated from raw and ready-to-eat food – phenotypic and genotypic characteristics

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was phenotypic and genotypic characterization of antibiotic-resistant food-borne Enterobacterales. The largest number of isolates was identified as Enterobacter cloacae (42.4%) followed by Escherichia coli (9.8%), Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella enterica, Proteus penneri, Citrobacter freundii (7.6% each), Citrobacter braakii (6.6%), Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca (5.4% each). More than half of isolates (52.2%) were resistant to at least one antibiotic. The majority were resistant to amoxicillin-clavulanate (28.3%) and ampicillin (19.5%). ESBL(+) phenotype was showed by 26 isolates and AmpC(+) phenotype by 32 isolates. The bla_CTX-M gene was carried by 53.8% of ESBL-positive isolates, gene from CIT family by 43.8% of AmpC-positive isolates. Our results suggest that more attention should be paid to antibiotic resistance of food-borne Enterobacterales. The presence of transmissible antibiotic resistance markers is an important criterion in the evaluation of food safety.

KEYWORDS:

• Enterobacterales
• antibiotic resistance
• food

Acknowledgments

The publication was written as a result of the authors (W. Ch-W. and A. Z.) internship in Department of Microbiology, Prof. Wacław Dąbrowski Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology, Warsaw, Poland co-financed by the European Union under the European Social Fund (Operational Program Knowledge Education Development), carried out in the project Development Program at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland (POWR.03.05. 00-00-Z310/17).

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.