Carbapenem resistance in escherichia coli from raw chicken meat, cloacal swab, environmental samples, and raw vegetable samples from Kota Bharu Kelantan

This study was performed to discover the carbapenem resistance of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in the poultry industry and raw vegetables by detecting the Carbapenem Resistance E. coli (CREC) in chicken meat samples, cloacal samples, chicken farm environmental samples, and raw vegetable samples. Among 127 samples, only 18 samples were positive for the carbapenemase gene blaOXA-48 with 5.521% from raw chicken meat, 3.14% from environmental samples, 1.575% from cloacal sample and 3.937% from raw vegetables sample, and three of raw vegetables were positive for the blaIMP gene and all samples were negative for the blaNDM-1 gene. These indicates the emergence of CREC in the poultry industry and raw vegetables. This also shows carbapenemase gene blaOXA-48 is the dominant carbapenemase gene. Among this positive CREC, two isolates were resistant to Imipenem. The antibiotic resistance susceptibility test results showed that among the CREC, the highest resistance rates were observed against tetracycline (76%) and ampicillin (79%). In conclusion, there is an emergence of CREC in the poultry industry and vegetables, and that can be a possible source of CREC occurrence in humans and there is tetracycline and ampicillin drug resistance that could indicate the improper usage of the antibiotic in poultry industry without the surveillance of authority. The expected outcome may not be achieved because of lack of time for this research, low samples number and few primer used to detect the carbapenamse gene. More primer should be used to detect other Carbapenemase gene such as blaKPC and blaVIM. The detection of emergence of CREC indicate a threat to public health and the need for standard precaution to be conducted to control the resistance toward Carbapenem.
Keywords: Carbapenem, Escherichia coli, poultry, raw vegetables, cloacal swab, chicken meat, CREC