Antibiotic Resistance of Escherichia coli Isolated from Conventional, No Antibiotics, and Humane Family Owned Retail Broiler Chicken Meat

Abstract

The use of antibiotics for therapeutic and especially non-therapeutic purposes in livestock farms promotes the development of antibiotic resistance in previously susceptible bacteria through selective pressure. In this work, we examined E. coli isolates using the standard Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility protocol and the CLSI standards. Companies selling retail chicken products in Los Angeles, California were grouped into three production groupings—Conventional, No Antibiotics, and Humane Family Owned. Humane Family Owned is not a federally regulated category in the United States, but shows the reader that the chicken is incubated, hatched, raised, slaughtered, and packaged by one party, ensuring that the use of antibiotics in the entire production of the chicken is known and understood. We then examined the antibiotic resistance of the E. coli isolates (n = 325) by exposing them to seven common antibiotics, and resistance was seen to two of the antibiotics, ampicillin and erythromycin. As has been shown previously, it was found that for both ampicillin and erythromycin, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between Conventional and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)-certified No Antibiotics chicken. Unique to this work, we additionally found that Humane Family Owned chicken had fewer (p ≤ 0.05) antibiotic-resistant E. coli isolates than both of the previous. Although not considered directly clinically relevant, we chose to test erythromycin because of its ecological significance to the environmental antibiotic resistome, which is not generally done. To our knowledge, Humane Family Owned consumer chicken has not previously been studied for its antibiotic resistance. This work contributes to a better understanding of a potential strategy of chicken production for the overall benefit of human health, giving evidentiary support to the One Health approach implemented by the World Health Organization.

First isolation of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 from sports animals in Southern Thailand

“…As we understand, the use of antimicrobial agents for therapeutic and especially non-therapeutic purposes for farm animals will promote the incidence of antimicrobial agent resistance through selective pressure. The majority of previous research was conducted on farm animals whose sole purpose was to produce food [42][43][44]. Antimicrobial agents used in animal farms for food production are not intended to promote growth; however, if infectious diseases are not treated promptly, they can negatively impact the productivity and economy of affected businesses.…”

Production systems and important antimicrobial resistant-pathogenic bacteria in poultry: a review

“… Streptomycin, tetracycline, kanamycin [ 144 ] Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin, azithromycin, cefoxitin, ceftiofur, ceftriaxone, chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole [ 145 ] Campylobacter spp. Tetracycline [ 146 ] Escherichia coli Ampicillin, cephazolin, streptomycin, tetracycline [ 117 ] Ampicillin, erythromycin [ 134 ] β-lactams [ 147 ] Staphylococcus aureus Clindamycin, oxacillin [ 27 ] Clostridium perfringens Not available Enterococcus spp. Streptomycin, erythromycin [ 148 ] …”

“…Moreover, a higher prevalence of resistant E. coli to ampicillin, ampicillin-sulbactam, cefazolin, cefoxitin, ceftriaxone, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was found in conventionally raised turkeys compared to organic and RWA produced ones [ 133 ]. However, Sanchez et al [ 134 ] reported a 56.2% and 60.7% resistance to ampicillin in E. coli when fed conventional and ABF, respectively [ 134 ]. In the Netherlands, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli harboring bla CTX-M-1 and bla CMY-2 genes have been isolated from commercial organic broilers [ 147 ].…”

Plant-based default nudges effectively increase the sustainability of catered meals on college campuses: Three randomized controlled trials

“…However, because chickens are much smaller than cows, replacing beef with chicken dramatically exacerbates the negative animal welfare impact of meat consumption (Mathur, 2022). Additionally, chicken production can have other detrimental impacts, including proliferation of antibiotic resistance (Sanchez et al, 2020). Despite significant differences in environmental impacts among the groups, each event footprint fell outside EAT-Lancet's established per-capita planetary boundaries (shown by the black lines in Figures 2A-D, 3A-D).…”