Molecular characterization of multidrug-resistant avian pathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from poultry and poultry products

Abstract

Overall occurrence of Escherichia coli in the current study was 7.55% and corresponding group wise occurrence was 13%, 2.66%, 10% and 7% in a faecal and cloacal samples, environmental samples, Retailer’s shop’s samples, and restaurant samples respectively. Amongst the different type of samples processed, highest recovery was from samples collected at poultry farms (13%) followed by Retailer’s shop (10%) suggesting heavy infection and contamination occurring at the initial points of poultry chain. In this study, four isolates failed to exhibit pathogenic potential of E. coli by using in - vitro pathogenic assays viz. Congo red dye binding assay and haemolysis by using 5% sheep blood agar, also turned out to be negative on virulent marker based PCR, suggesting proficient efficacy of targeted genes viz. ecp and uidA for precise and time saving determination of pathogenic potential of E. coli isolates. Besides, one isolate recovered from raw chicken meat sample showed resistance against all 15 antibiotics and other two isolates recovered from litter samples showed resistance against 14 antibiotics suggesting development of multi-drug resistance in common food pathogens, against the most widely used and effective drug of choices in animal as well as human medicine.