Prevalence of Multidrug-Resistant Foodborne Pathogens and Indicator Bacteria from Edible Offal and Muscle Meats in Nashville, Tennessee

Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in retail edible offal and muscle meats in Nashville, Tennessee. A total of 348 retail meats (160 edible offal and 188 muscle) were analyzed for Salmonella enterica serovar, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, E. coli O157:H7, and enterococci. Bacteria was identified using biochemical and PCR methods. Salmonella enterica serovar (4.4% and 4.3%), Campylobacter (1.9% and 1.1%), E. coli (79.4% and 89.4%), and enterococci (88.1% and 95.7%) was detected in offal and muscle meats, respectively. Chicken liver (9.7%) was most frequently contaminated with Salmonella enterica serovar, followed by ground chicken (6.9%) and chicken wings (4.2%). No Salmonella enterica serovar was detected in beef liver, beef tripe, and ground beef. The prevalence of Campylobacter was 6.9%, 2.3%, and 1.4% in beef liver, ground beef, and ground chicken, respectively. None of the meats were positive for E. coli O157:H7. Resistance of isolates was significantly (p < 0.05) highest in erythromycin (98.3%; 99.1%), followed by tetracycline (94%; 98.3%), vancomycin (88.8%; 92.2%) as compared to chloramphenicol (43.1%; 53.9%), amoxicillin/clavulanic (43.5%; 45.7%), and ciprofloxacin (45.7%; 55.7%) in offal and muscle meats, respectively. Imipenem showed the lowest resistance (0%; 0.9%). A total of 41 multidrug-resistant patterns were displayed. Edible offal could be a source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Development of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli in some Egyptian veterinary farms

“…Moreover, 177 out of 350 meat and meat by-product samples were confirmed to have E. coli (representing a percentage of 50.6%). These results are in agreement with other studies [26,27], although Shaltout found lower prevalence rates for E. coli [28]. Finally, the recovery rate of E. coli from human samples was found to be 20.0% (35 out of 175 samples), demonstrating a high prevalence rate in humans according to many studies [29][30][31].…”

Campylobacter jejuni and other emerging Campylobacteraceae in retail beef liver – an underestimated potential source?

“…In general, studies on the presence of Campylobacter spp. have shown that its prevalence in retail bovine liver is higher than in beef, where the percentages do not usually exceed 5% (Pezzotti et al 2003;Little et al 2008;Ristori et al 2017;Ju et al 2018;Di Giannatale et al 2019;Liu et al 2020;Thomas et al 2020). In fact, a previous study in Chile found a prevalence of just 4Á4% for C. jejuni in retail beef (Lapierre et al 2016).…”

“…Although other mutations (D90N, D90Y, D90G, N203S, R285K) in this region have also been associated with resistance to fluoroquinolones in Campylobacter spp., T86I is the predominant mutation reported to cause the highest levels of resistance (Tang et al 2017;B en ejat et al 2018;Rivera-Mendoza et al 2020). Additionally, the cmeABC efflux pump acts synergistically on resistance to fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines and other antimicrobials agents by exporting the antibiotic out of the bacterial cell, thus reducing their intracellular concentration (Luangtongkum et al 2009). This pump consists of three subunits, encoded by genes cmeA, cmeB and cmeC (Shen et al 2018).…”

“…The infection caused by these microorganisms is characterized mainly by acute diarrhoea and abdominal pain, however, to a lesser extent, they have also been associated with severe systemic infections (Luangtongkum et al 2009;Collado and Figueras 2011). Additionally, C. jejuni is associated with post-infection sequelae such as Guillain-Barre and Miller-Fisher Syndromes (Keithlin et al 2014).…”

“…Considering that there are neither standardized methods for antibiotic testing nor specific treatments recommended for infections caused by Arcobacter spp., the same antimicrobials for campylobacteriosis are commonly used for intestinal infections (Salas-Mass o et al 2018). Nevertheless, resistance to these antimicrobials is increasingly reported in Campylobacteraceae isolated from both clinical samples and from food-producing animals (Luangtongkum et al 2009;Ferreira et al 2015).…”