TY - JOUR
T1 - Enumeration, antimicrobial resistance and genomic characterization of extended-spectrum β-lactamases producing Escherichia coli from supermarket chicken meat in the United Arab Emirates
AU - Habib, Ihab
AU - Elbediwi, Mohammed
AU - Mohamed, Mohamed Yousif Ibrahim
AU - Ghazawi, Akela
AU - Abdalla, Afra
AU - Khalifa, Hazim O.
AU - Khan, Mushtaq
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the ASPIRE Research Institute for Food Security in the Drylands (ARIFSID) project (Subtheme 4.1 - One Health and Antimicrobial Resistance). ASPIRE is a Research and Development Funding Organization in the United Arab Emirates that works as the technology transition pillar of Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/8/2
Y1 - 2023/8/2
N2 - The occurrence and counts of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in retail chicken sold in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were investigated in this study. Results indicated that 79.68 % of chicken carcasses (251/315) sampled from UAE supermarkets harbored ESBL-producing E. coli. About half (51.75 % [163/315]) of the tested samples had an ESBL-producing E. coli count range between ≥3 log10 and < 5 log10 CFU/g. The antimicrobial resistance profiles of a subset of 100 isolates showed high rates of non-susceptibility to clinically significant antibiotics, particularly ciprofloxacin (80 %) and cefepime (46 %). Moreover, 7 % of the isolates exhibited resistance to colistin, with PCR-based screening revealing the presence of the mcr-1 gene in all colistin-resistant isolates. Multiplex PCR screening identified blaCTX-M and blaTEM genes as the most frequently presented genes among the phenotypically confirmed ESBL-producing E. coli. Further whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of 27 ESBL-producing E. coli isolates showed that the gene family blaCTX group 1 was the most prevalent, notably CTX-M-55 (55.55 % [15/27]), followed by CTX-M-15 (22.22 % [6/27]). The most common sequence types (STs) were ST359 and ST1011, with three evident clusters identified based on phylogenomic analysis, aligned with isolates from specific production companies. Analysis of plasmid incompatibility types revealed IncFIB, IncFII, Incl2, and IncX1 as the most commonly featured plasmids. The findings of this study indicate a noticeable prevalence and high counts of ESBL-producing E. coli in chicken sampled from supermarkets in the UAE. The high rates of antimicrobial resistance to clinically important antibiotics highlight the potential public health risk associated with consuming chicken contaminated with ESBL-producing E. coli. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of continued antimicrobial resistance monitoring in the UAE food chain and calls for further exposure risk assessment of the consumption of ESBL-producing E. coli via chicken meat.
AB - The occurrence and counts of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in retail chicken sold in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were investigated in this study. Results indicated that 79.68 % of chicken carcasses (251/315) sampled from UAE supermarkets harbored ESBL-producing E. coli. About half (51.75 % [163/315]) of the tested samples had an ESBL-producing E. coli count range between ≥3 log10 and < 5 log10 CFU/g. The antimicrobial resistance profiles of a subset of 100 isolates showed high rates of non-susceptibility to clinically significant antibiotics, particularly ciprofloxacin (80 %) and cefepime (46 %). Moreover, 7 % of the isolates exhibited resistance to colistin, with PCR-based screening revealing the presence of the mcr-1 gene in all colistin-resistant isolates. Multiplex PCR screening identified blaCTX-M and blaTEM genes as the most frequently presented genes among the phenotypically confirmed ESBL-producing E. coli. Further whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of 27 ESBL-producing E. coli isolates showed that the gene family blaCTX group 1 was the most prevalent, notably CTX-M-55 (55.55 % [15/27]), followed by CTX-M-15 (22.22 % [6/27]). The most common sequence types (STs) were ST359 and ST1011, with three evident clusters identified based on phylogenomic analysis, aligned with isolates from specific production companies. Analysis of plasmid incompatibility types revealed IncFIB, IncFII, Incl2, and IncX1 as the most commonly featured plasmids. The findings of this study indicate a noticeable prevalence and high counts of ESBL-producing E. coli in chicken sampled from supermarkets in the UAE. The high rates of antimicrobial resistance to clinically important antibiotics highlight the potential public health risk associated with consuming chicken contaminated with ESBL-producing E. coli. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of continued antimicrobial resistance monitoring in the UAE food chain and calls for further exposure risk assessment of the consumption of ESBL-producing E. coli via chicken meat.
KW - Antibiotic resistance
KW - ESBL
KW - Enumeration
KW - Food
KW - Middle East
KW - WGS
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85158069685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85158069685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2023.110224
DO - 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2023.110224
M3 - Article
C2 - 37167788
AN - SCOPUS:85158069685
SN - 0168-1605
VL - 398
JO - International Journal of Food Microbiology
JF - International Journal of Food Microbiology
M1 - 110224
ER -