Serotypes, Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles, and Virulence Factors of Isolates in Chinese Edible Frogs () Collected from Wet Markets in Hong Kong.

is an important agent of gastrointestinal disease in humans. While livestock, such as cattle, poultry, and pigs, are well-recognised animal reservoirs of , there is a lack of data on in edible frogs, even though frog meat is a popular food worldwide. In this study, 103 live edible Chinese frogs () were collected from wet markets throughout Hong Kong. After euthanasia, faeces or cloacal swabs were examined for . Overall, spp. were isolated from 67 (65%, CI: 0.554-0.736) of the samples. The serotypes included . Saintpaul (33%), . Newport (24%), . Bareilly (7%), . Braenderup (4%), . Hvittingfoss (4%), . Stanley (10%), and . Wandsworth (16%). Many isolates were phylogenetically related. A high number of genes encoding for resistance to clinically relevant antimicrobials, and a high number of virulence determinants, were identified. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) identified multidrug resistance (MDR) in 21% of the isolates. Resistance to ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, and tetracycline was common. These results demonstrate that a high percentage of live frogs sold for human consumption in wet markets are carriers of multidrug-resistant . Public health recommendations for handling edible frogs should be considered, to mitigate the risk of transmission to humans.