Antibiotic resistance and extended-spectrum β-lactamase in Escherichia coli isolates from imported 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults

AIM: Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat. This study investigated the prevalence of Escherichia coli in imported 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The liver, heart, lungs, and yolk sacs of 148 imported batches of 1-day-old flocks (chicks, 45; ducklings, 63; and turkey poults, 40) were bacteriologically examined for the presence of E. coli. RESULTS: We isolated 38 E. coli strains from 13.5%, 6.7%, and 5.4% of imported batches of 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults, respectively. They were serotyped as O91, O125, O145, O78, O44, O36, O169, O124, O15, O26, and untyped in the imported chicks; O91, O119, O145, O15, O169, and untyped in the imported ducklings; and O78, O28, O29, O168, O125, O158, and O115 in the imported turkey poults. The E. coli isolates were investigated for antibiotic resistance against 16 antibiotics using the disk diffusion method and were found resistant to cefotaxime (60.5%), nalidixic acid (44.7%), tetracycline (44.7%), and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (42.1%). The distribution of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and ampC β-lactamase genes was bla(TEM) (52.6%), bla(SHV) (28.9%), bla(CTX-M) (39.5%), bla(OXA-1) (13.1%), and ampC (28.9%). CONCLUSION: Imported 1-day-old poultry flocks may be a potential source for the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant E. coli and the ESBL genes in poultry production.