Antibiotic-Resistant <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> from Market Meat in Peru

Unconsidered microorganisms, such as <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa,</i> may be often recovered from food samples. This study aimed to characterize seven <i>P. aeruginosa</i> recovered from traditional market chicken meat in Lima, Peru. Antimicrobial susceptibility to 18 antimicrobial agents as well as the presence of amino acid changes in fluoroquinolone targets, 10 mediated colistin resistance (<i>mcr</i>) genes and integrons were analyzed. Clonal relationships were determined through pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Serotype by agglutination, multilocus sequence typing and the presence of 14 virulence factors (VFs) were established. Two isolates were multidrug-resistant, all being fluoroquinolone-resistant and exhibited the amino acid changes GyrA T₈₃I and ParC S₈₇L. No <i>mcr</i> gene was detected in the colistin-resistant isolates. The isolates showed identical PFGE patterns, and the selected P6 isolate belonged to the serotype O:4 and the sequence type 1800, and presented 12 VFs (all but <i>exoU</i> and <i>exlA</i>). The present study highlights the presence of multidrug and virulent <i>P. aeruginosa</i> in market chicken meat, and suggests cross-contamination during meat manipulation.