Abstract
BackgroundA main export market for chicken meat from industrialized countries is sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesized that antibiotic resistant bacteria could be exported to developing countries through chicken meat trade. The objective was to investigate the occurrence and molecular types of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus aureus in chicken meat in Gabon and to assess their dissemination among humans.ResultsFrozen chicken meat samples imported from industrialized countries to Gabon (n = 151) were screened for ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae and S. aureus. Genotypes and resistance genes (SHV, TEM, CTX-M, CMY-2) of isolates from meat were compared with isolates derived from humans.The contamination rate per chicken part (i. e. leg, wing) with ESBL-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL E. coli, no other ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae were found) and S. aureus was 23% and 3%, respectively. The beta-lactamase CTX-M 1 was predominant in ESBL E. coli from meat samples but was not found in isolates from cases of human colonization or infection. S. aureus belonging to spa type t002 (multilocus sequence type ST5) were found both in chicken meat and humans.ConclusionThere is a risk to import ESBL E. coli to Gabon but molecular differences between isolates from humans and chicken meat argue against a further dissemination. No MRSA isolate was detected in imported chicken meat.
Highlights
A main export market for chicken meat from industrialized countries is sub-Saharan Africa
extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) Enterobacteriaceae other than E. coli were not detected on the colorimetric media
Among imported chicken meat in Gabon, ESBL E. coli was clearly associated with meat samples from Spain as the producing country (OR = Inf., 95% CI: 7.5–Inf., p < 0.001)
Summary
A main export market for chicken meat from industrialized countries is sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesized that antibiotic resistant bacteria could be exported to developing countries through chicken meat trade. The global trade volume is steadily increasing and the exchange of various goods may contribute to economic wealth and development. Global travel and trade bear the risk of transmitting pathogens through travelers or goods. In European countries, industrially raised poultry and chicken can be contaminated with ESBL-producing E. coli (ESBL E. coli, up to 58–93.3% of chicken) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA, 0.7-37.2% of chicken) [7,8,9,10,11,12]. One study showed that contamination of food items with multidrug-resistant bacteria might be an important vehicle for the spread of antibiotic resistance [13]
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