Isolation, Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profile and Detection of 1, TEM, and SHV in Amoxicillin-Clavulanate-Resistant Bacteria Isolated From Retail Sausages in Kampar, Malaysia.

Background: Due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock as a growth-promoting agent, the emergence of multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria is becoming a concern.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to detect the presence and discover the molecular determinants of foodborne bacteria in retail sausages resistant towards the antibacterial agent amoxicillin-clavulanate.

Methods: Two grams of sausages were chopped into small pieces and transferred into sterile Luria-Bertani (LB) enrichment broths overnight before they were plated on MacConkey agar petri dishes. The bacteria isolated were then screened for amoxicillin-clavulanate resistance, and an antimicrobial susceptibility test of each isolate was performed by using the disc diffusion method. Double synergy and phenotypic tests were carried out to detect the presence of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL). API 20E kit was used to identify the . All isolates were further examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for resistant genes OXA-1, OXA-10, plasmid-mediated AmpC (CMY and DHA), and the chromosome-mediated AmpC, 1, TEM, and SHV genes.

Results: A total of 18 amoxicillin-clavulanate resistant isolates were obtained from seven different types of retail sausages. Only half of them were identified as , but none were ESBL-producers. All the 18 isolated strains demonstrated resistance towards amoxicillin-clavulanate, penicillin and oxacillin (100%), cefotaxime (71.4%), cefpodoxime (66.7%), and ampicillin (83.3%). TEM was the most frequently detected β-lactamase gene. Both plasmid- and chromosomal-bound TEM genes were detected in all of the isolated . SHV and 1 accounted for 22.2% and 11.1% of the amoxicillin-clavulanate resistant isolates, respectively, whereas AMPC, CMY, DHA, OXA-1, and OXA-10 were not found in any of the isolates. The only one ESBL-producing bacteria detected in this study was , which harbored the TEM gene.

Conclusions: The multidrug resistant bacteria that carry antibiotic resistant genes from retail sausages may increase the risk of transmission to humans via the consumption of contaminated sausages. Stricter measures must be taken to address the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture and to consider their potential impact on human health.