Abstract
To determine antimicrobial resistance, 431 samples of retail foods purchased at different supermarkets in Northern Xinjiang were examined in this study. There were 112 Escherichia coli strains that were isolated, with approximately 26% of the samples contaminated by E. coli. The detection rate of E. coli isolated from pork was the highest (59.6%), followed by mutton (52.6%), retail fresh milk (52.4%), duck (36.4%), beef (35.3%), chicken (33.3%), and ready‐to‐eat food (12.9%); the E. coli detection rate for fish and vegetables was <11%. The result showed that the 112 isolates were mostly resistant to tetracycline (52%), followed by ampicillin (42%), compound trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (37%), amoxicillin (33%), and nalidixic acid (32%), imipenem resistance was not detected. One hundred isolates carried at least one antimicrobial resistance gene. The detection rate of resistance genes of our study was as follows: tetA (38%), tetB (27%), bla OXA (40%), bla TEM (20%), floR (20%), sul1 (16%), sul2 (27%), aad Ala (19%), aadB (11%), strA (28%), and strB (24%); tetC and bla PSE were not detected. Virulence genes fimC, agg, stx2, fimA, fyuA, papA, stx1, and eaeA were found in 52, 34, 21, 19, 6, 3, 2, and 2 isolates, respectively; papC was not detected. There was a statistically significant association between fimC and resistance to ciprofloxacin (p = .001), gentamicin (p = .001), amikacin (p = .001), levofloxacin (p = .001), and streptomycin (p = .001); between fimA and resistance to tetracycline (p = .001), ampicillin (p = .001), compound trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (p = .001), and amoxicillin (p = .003); between agg and resistance to gentamicin (p = .001), tetracycline (p = .001), ciprofloxacin (p = .017), and levofloxacin (p = .001); and between stx2 and resistance to ampicillin (p = .001), tetracycline (p = .001), compound trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (p = .002), and amoxicillin (p = .015).
Highlights
It is well known that Escherichia coli mainly exists in the human and animal gastrointestinal tract
Whether there is a link between high contamination rates and high antibiotic resistance rates for E. coli in food remains to be determined
In both developed and developing countries, antibiotic resistance has been recognized as a problem in the field of human and veterinary medicine (Bottacini et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2017)
Summary
It is well known that Escherichia coli mainly exists in the human and animal gastrointestinal tract. It occurs in the natural environment, especially in soil, water, and plants (Katarzyna & Anna, 2016). It is not surprising that some of the E. coli in the environment reinfects humans through vegetable- or animal-derived foods. Drug resistance genes carried by E. coli can be transferred to other pathogenic bacteria, and, due to the excessive use of antibiotics, selection pressure is very high, resulting in bacterial strains resistant to a variety of drugs. Multi-drug-resistant strains are characterized by the presence of multiple genes conferring drug resistance, which results in insensitivity to many different drug groups (Hu, Yang, & Li, 2016; Rasheed, Thajuddin, Ahamed, Teklemariam, & Jamil, 2014)
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