Molecular Screening of β-glucuronidase and Class 1 Integron of Escherichia coli from Ready-to-Eat Foods in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu

Antony Jenifer,Karuppannan Sathiyamurthy

doi:10.22207/jpam.14.3.59

Abstract

Ready-to-eat food products procured from different roadside shops in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu were screened for Escherichia coli. A total of 500 samples from 250 vegetable and 250 meat products were collected from different hotels, restaurants and street food vendors in Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu. Out of 500 ready-to-eat food samples, 162 (32.4%) E. coli strains were isolated. The ready-to-eat meat products had higher bacterial count than the vegetable food samples collected due to unhygienic handling, improper storage, inadequate temperature to maintain processed meat and improper cooking. Biochemically identified E. coli colonies were screened for housekeeping gene uidA and 139 (85.8%) E. coli isolates were confirmed to possess β-glucuronidase activity. In addition, antibiotic susceptibility assay was performed using 12 antibiotics. From 139 E. coli strains, 96 (69.1%) isolates showed multidrug resistance. Among them, 16.7% showed 100% resistance to all the antibiotics tested. Whereas, multidrug resistant E. coli isolates showed increased resistance (75.9%) to streptomycin followed by 70-50% level of resistance to ceftriaxone, ampicillin, cefixime, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, gentamicin, doxycycline, co-trimoxazole, norfloxacin, ofloxacin and chloramphenicol. Furthermore, drug resistant E. coli isolates 56 (58.3%) were detected with the presence of intI1. The source of contamination was found to be water and human handling. Drinking water supply from corporation might have been contaminated with fecal waste source is being discharged into Cauvery river which might disseminate horizontal gene transfer.

Highlights

The World Health Organization (2014), on antimicrobial resistance surveillance, reported that Echerichia coli is one among the nine bacteria responsible for common infections in the community[1]
It was found that out of 250 vegetable ready-toeat food samples, 80 (32%) E. coli strains were identified and 64 (80%) of them were confirmed positive for uidA gene
82 (32.8%) E. coli isolates were identified among 250 ready-to-eat meat products and 75 (91.46%) of them were positive for uidA gene and 7 (8.53%) E. coli isolates were found to be absence of uidA gene

Summary

Introduction

The World Health Organization (2014), on antimicrobial resistance surveillance, reported that Echerichia coli is one among the nine bacteria responsible for common infections in the community[1]. Bacterial evolution enables their adaptation to most of the ecosystems[2]. It is suspected that mortalities due to multidrug resistance will increase to 10 million by 2050 and in that, E. coli infection’s contribution will be 30%3. E. coli is a significant member of intestinal nonpathogenic bacteria, which may possess antibiotic drug resistance[4]. E. coli is the highly potential reservoir and carrier of resistant plasmids[5]. Antibiotic resistant genes encoded with integrons are regarded as genetic pollutants[6]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion