Short communicationQuantification of ESBL-Escherichia coli on broiler carcasses after slaughtering in Germany
Introduction
Escherichia coli producing extended spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) inactivate β-lactam antibiotics and broad spectrum cephalosporins of class 3 (Livermore, 2008). Additional resistance genes confer resistance to a wide range of different antimicrobials. As a result, ESBL-producers are considered a serious threat for therapy failure in human medicine and are increasingly reported during the last decade (Livermore, 2009). ESBL-producing E. coli were shown to be prevalent in several food animal species at farm level and in products thereof (Dierikx et al., 2010, Geser et al., 2011). Possible associations between human and broiler ESBL-E. coli were reported and broilers were proposed as a potential reservoir for human acquisition of foodborne resistant bacteria, because analysed strains of human and poultry origin shared similar ESBL-genes or plasmid types (Ewers et al., 2012, Kluytmans et al., 2013). Little is known about the number of ESBL-E. coli on carcasses after slaughtering at processing level which is the first step in meat production. Quantification is of interest when it comes to risk assessments or feasibility of potential intervention measures (Ellerbroek, 2012). It is currently being discussed to develop microbiological criteria or performance targets for antimicrobial resistant bacteria at the broiler meat production level to aid food safety (EFSA, 2012a). Enumeration studies are needed in advance to understand the current situation and to evaluate the status-quo. This will help to quantify the impact of the broiler meat production chain on consumer exposure. The aim of this study was to assess the number of ESBL-producing E. coli on market ready broilers in Germany collected at the end of slaughtering in 3 different processing facilities. This is also an example how sampling for ESBL-E. coli could be implemented in the existing microbiological hygiene control system at slaughterhouses.
Section snippets
Material and methods
In this study a total of 30 flocks were sampled after slaughtering at three different slaughterhouses (A–C), with 10 flocks sampled per slaughterhouse. The flocks, a unit of broilers of the same age and from the same house of a farm, were representative of conventional flocks, the size of the flocks ranging from 30,000 to 40,000. Per flock 10 caeca were collected, with 300 samples in total for the 30 flocks. Caeca content is considered to be representative for the amount of bacteria introduced
Caeca samples
A total of 90% of the 30 flocks tested positive for ESBL-E. coli in pooled caeca samples after enrichment. The three individual slaughterhouses A, B and C had prevalence rates for each of the 10 tested flocks of 80%, 90% and 100%, respectively (Table 1). In slaughterhouses A and B the ESBL-E. coli test positive flocks in addition had values above the limit of enumeration in all samples, with means of 4.5 cfu/g and 4.9 cfu/g, respectively. In slaughterhouse C, 7 out of the 10 positive tested
Discussion
Extended spectrum β-lactamase gene carrying E. coli were found in broiler flocks of all three slaughterhouses with high percentages at the end of the slaughtering process. The results were within the range of reports from other studies which found ESBL-E. coli in ca. 40% up to >90% of broiler meat at the retail level (Egea et al., 2012, Kola et al., 2012, Overdevest et al., 2011). Nevertheless, the high prevalence of ESBL-E. coli does not coincide with high bacterial numbers. Only 32.7% of the
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2018, International Journal of Food MicrobiologyCitation Excerpt :The median of cefotaxime resistant Enterobacteriaceae was 2.5 × 103 cfu/g in caecum, 1.5 × 103 cfu/g in skin and 1.5 × 102 cfu/g in filet samples. A high prevalence of ESBL-/AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae did not necessarily result in high concentrations of ESBL-/AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae, this was also shown in other studies (Cohen Stuart et al., 2012; Reich et al., 2013; Reich et al., 2016). However, Smet et al. (2011) showed by means of an in situ continuous flow culture system that an avian E. coli strain could proliferate without selective pressure of an antibiotic and that a gene transfer between avian and human E. coli strains could already take place at a concentration of 103 cfu/ml of the donor strain.
Level of Detection (LOD<inf>50</inf>) of Campylobacter Is Strongly Dependent on Strain, Enrichment Broth, and Food Matrix
2022, Frontiers in Microbiology
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