Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli from frozen chicken meat

The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, poses a growing threat to human health, veterinary medicine, and food hygiene.Therefore, the aim of this research was screening of E. coli and identifying antibiotic resistance profiles in isolates obtained from frozen chicken meat samples collected from super shops in Sylhet, Bangladesh.The study was conducted in 2023 with 40 chicken samples.Gram-negative E. coli isolates were identified based on their green metallic sheen on selective media and confirmed through biochemical examination.Of the 40 samples, 38 (95% prevalence) samples tested positive for E. coli.Antibiotic resistance profiles were determined using the disk diffusion method against 16 antibiotics from 13 antimicrobial classes.Resistance rates were particularly high against ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, oxytetracycline, and cephalexin, with 100% of multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates.Six isolates (15.79%) were resistant to all thirteen antibiotic classes tested, while more than 70% of the MDR E. coli were resistant to 9-13 antibiotic classes.Antibiotics such as chloramphenicol (44.74%) and aztreonam (39.47%) showed a higher rate of susceptibility.The findings of this research may contribute to a better understanding of antimicrobial resistance in E. coli from frozen chicken meat samples.