Antibiotic resistance and extended-spectrum β-lactamase in isolates from imported 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults.

Aim: Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat. This study investigated the prevalence of in imported 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults.

Materials And Methods: The liver, heart, lungs, and yolk sacs of 148 imported batches of 1-day-old flocks (chicks, 45; ducklings, 63; and turkey poults, 40) were bacteriologically examined for the presence of .

Results: We isolated 38 strains from 13.5%, 6.7%, and 5.4% of imported batches of 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults, respectively. They were serotyped as O91, O125, O145, O78, O44, O36, O169, O124, O15, O26, and untyped in the imported chicks; O91, O119, O145, O15, O169, and untyped in the imported ducklings; and O78, O28, O29, O168, O125, O158, and O115 in the imported turkey poults. The isolates were investigated for antibiotic resistance against 16 antibiotics using the disk diffusion method and were found resistant to cefotaxime (60.5%), nalidixic acid (44.7%), tetracycline (44.7%), and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (42.1%). The distribution of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and β-lactamase genes was (52.6%), (28.9%), (39.5%), (13.1%), and (28.9%).

Conclusion: Imported 1-day-old poultry flocks may be a potential source for the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant and the ESBL genes in poultry production.