Can Human Handling Increase the Presence of Multidrug Resistance (MDR) in spp. Isolated from Food Sources?

The spread of antibiotic resistance (AR) among zoonotic pathogens is a serious health problem, especially because in the last decade the massive use of antibiotics has favored the emergence of Multidrug Resistance (MDR) strains. Some species of the genus are among the major causes of foodborne infections worldwide and could represent reservoirs of AR. For these reasons, the susceptibility to six antibiotic classes of 63 strains isolated from animals and food was determined to assess the presence of MDR strains. In addition, the detection of resistance genes was done for strains that resulted in MDR. A statistically significant difference was found when comparing the presence of spp. MDR strains between strains isolated from animals and strains isolated from food. Our data seem to indicate that MDR occurs mostly in strains isolated from food.