Antibiotic profiling of multidrug resistant pathogens in one-day-old chicks imported from Belgium to benin

Abstract

Background Little data exist on the presence of resistant pathogens in day-old chicks imported into Benin. The occurrence of pathogenic bacteria was assessed in 180 one-day-old chicks imported from Belgium and received at the Cardinal Bernardin Gantin International Airport in Cotonou (Benin). The samples included swabbing the blisters of 180 chicks, followed by 18 pools of 10 swabs for bacterial isolation. Classic bacteriological methods based on Gram staining, culture on specific media and biochemical characterization were used. Antibacterial susceptibility screening to antibiotics was conducted using the Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion method, and the results were interpreted according to guidelines from the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST). DNA extraction was performed by the heat treatment method. Resistance genes were screened by real-time PCR. Results We isolated 32 bacteria, including Escherichia coli (50%), Enterococcus spp. (28%), and coagulase-negative staphylococci (10%). The isolates were investigated for antibiotic resistance against antibiotics using the disk diffusion method and showed that in the Escherichia coli strains isolated, the highest rate of resistance was obtained against ciprofloxacin (81%), followed by trimethoprim + sulfamethoxazole (62%). Enterobacter cloacae was sensitive to all the antibiotics tested. Pseudomonas spp. resistant to amoxicillin and trimethoprim + sulfamethoxazole was noted. The SulII gene was found in all cloacal samples, while the SulI and blaTEM genes were present at 44.44% and 16.67%, respectively. Conclusion This study confirms that imported day-old chicks can be a potential source of dissemination of resistant bacteria in poultry production. A system for immediate detection of resistant bacteria in chicks upon arrival in the country is thus needed.

Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance in Escherichia coli and Salmonella Species Isolates from Chickens in Live Bird Markets and Boot Swabs from Layer Farms in Timor-Leste

“…It has been well documented that day-old chicks can act as a source of antimicrobial resistant bacteria for chicken farms [63][64][65][66]. Hence, another possible source of resistance for broilers and layers could be from day-old chicks, which are imported from Indonesia or Malaysia where antimicrobial resistance in commercial chickens is known to be high [25,59,62,67].…”

Molecular detection of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa of different avian sources with pathogenicity testing and in vitro evaluation of antibacterial efficacy of silver nanoparticles against multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa

“…These enzymes' genes are frequently found on plasmids that also contain resistance genes to other commonly used antibiotics in clinical settings ( Egorov et al, 2018 ). Infections with these multidrug-resistant organisms ( MDROs ) will thus pose therapeutic challenges, the antibiotic pipeline is drying up, and no new antimicrobial agents to treat infections caused by MDROs are expected in the near future ( Bettiol and Harbarth, 2015 ; Dougnon et al, 2023 ). Antibiotics are commonly used in veterinary medicine for both therapeutic and prophylactic purposes and this is prohibited by the European Union ( Jawher and Hasan, 2023 ).…”