Prevalence of Escherichia coli and Antibiotic Resistance in Clinical and Food Samples

Abstract

Escherichia coli is a crucial indicator of hygiene for animal derived foods and clinical samples. Since E. coli is a zoonotic disease, its contamination poses a severe risk to public health due to the consumption of foods that have been treated with antibiotics and the overuse of antibiotics to treat a variety of bacterial infections in humans. Therefore, the objective of this investigation was to ascertain the emergence of MDR E. coli strains in specific foods and clinical samples from Egypt. Fifteen clinical samples of urine, stool, and pus, and 15 dietary samples containing vegetables, meat, milk, cheese, and chicken were randomly obtained from various locations in Egypt for this study. The thirty E. coli-positive samples that were isolated from the two sources were tested for antibiotic susceptibility to eleven different antibiotics and biochemical identification. According to the study, all clinical isolates were completely resistant to both ampicillin/sulbactam and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. Cefoxitin and cephalexin resistance were present in 93.3 and 86.6 percent of the isolates, respectively. On the other hand, all clinical isolates were sensitive to Imipenem. However, all the food isolates were sensitive to Levofloxacin, Aztreonam, and Imipenem, whereas 100% of the isolates were resistant to Ampicillin/Sulbactam and 93.3 percent of the isolates were resistant to Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid. We discovered that both individual and MDR-resistant E. coli were widespread in clinical and feed samples. This may suggest that these foods produced by animals and plants have the potential to contaminate other foods and other peoples with antibiotic-resistant E. coli, raising a potential public health issue. This study highlights the importance of promoting sanitation and minimizing the use of antibiotics. It is crucial to perform a multicenter study to assess the spread and evolution of MDR E. coli in hospital studies, as well as in foods originating from both plants and animals.