Prevalence and characterization of antibiotic resistant bacteria isolated from refrigerated chicken meat

At present days, the excessive use of antibiotic in poultry industries has resulted in a severe public health hazard in the form of resistant bacterial infections. These adverse outcomes of resistant bacterial infections may be clinical or economic and reflect primarily the failure or delay of antibiotic treatment. Despite the problem of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria, there is much scarcity of information on the diversity, distribution and origins of these bacteria in refrigerated chicken meat. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to identify and characterize antibiotic resistant bacteria from refrigerated chicken meat in standard in vitro condition. Two different brand of chicken meat (Kazi, Bengal) and one sample from a super shop (Shwapno) were used as samples. Two different growth media (McConkey and Blood agar) were used for bacterial growth, identification, and antibiotic susceptibility testing following Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) recommendations. There were 17 unique isolates were selected in MacConkey agar media and 20 isolates were selected in blood agar media. Different biochemical tests (Oxidase test, Catalase test, Methyl red test, Voges-Proskauer test, Indole test, Citrate test, MacConkey agar test, Nitrate test, Gelatin test and TSI test) were performed with these 37 isolates. Bergey’s manual was followed to identify these isolates based on the biochemical tests and morphological characteristics. Among the isolates, most of the strains were in the family of Bacillus spp., Micrococcus spp., Listeria spp., Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., Salmonella spp., and E. coli. For antibiotic susceptibility test, 4 antibiotics (Erythromycin, Ciprofloxacin, Nitrofurantoin and Doxycycline) were treated against isolated bacterial strains. Among these selected 14 isolates, 9 bacteria showed resistance activity against erythromycin, while 5 bacteria showed resistance against ciprofloxacin, 4 bacteria showed resistance activity against nitrofurantoin and 11 bacterial isolates showed resistance activity against Doxycycline. Streptococcus spp.,Staphylococcus spp., Bacillus spp., Klbsiella spp, Micrococcus spp., Listeria spp., Salmonella spp., Actinomytes spp., and Aeromonas spp. showed higher antibiotic resistance rate than others. This study found that antimicrobial resistant bacteria are abundant in refrigerated meat at an alarming rate. Thus, the findings of this study will help the consumers to better understand the risk of developing antibiotic-resistant bacteria as a result of irrational use of antibiotics.

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