Antimicrobials are excessively used in Pakistan during broiler poultry production, however, status of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is not known. We report on the  frequency of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) –producing-Escherichia coli recovered from samples obtained from poultry farm environment (n=100) and chicken meat samples (n=100) collected at sales point of live bird market in District Peshawar, Pakistan. Phenotypically confirmed ESBL producers were further investigated for the presence of ESBL- and carbapenemase-encoding genes and types of integrons. Our results showed that 38.8% (14/36) and 47.6% (20/42) of E. coli recovered from farm environment and chicken meat, respectively, were found to be ESBL producers. PCR based results showed that 30% (6/20), 10% (2/20) and 20% (4/20) of these E. coli from chicken-meat were harboring bla_CTXM, bla_CTXM-1 and bla_SHV2, respectively, while 20% were carrying bla_OXA-48 and bla_{NDM -1}.  On the other hands, 28.5% (4/14), 28.5% (4/14) and 14.2% (2/14) of E. coli isolated from chicken farm-environment were harboring bla_CTXM, bla_CTXM-1 and bla_SHV2, respectively, while, 28.5% (4/14) and 14.2% (2/14) were carrying bla_OXA-48 and bla_{NDM -}1. Integron 2 was PCR amplified from 17 isolates and integron 1 from 16 isolates, while, integron 3 was absent from all. Finally, insertion sequence ISCR1 was PCR-amplified from 15 isolates (41.6%), which was found associated with bla_CTXM among 6 (16.6%) isolates suggesting its role in mobilization. Overall, our results suggest a high rate of occurrence of ESBL- and carbapenemase-carrying E. coli in poultry farm environment and chicken meat.

To Cite This Article: Rahman SU, Ahmad S and Khan I, 2019. Incidence of ESBL-producing-Escherichia coli in poultry farm environment and retail poultry meat. Pak Vet J, 39(1): 116-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.091