Antibiotic Resistance of <i>Escherichia coli</i> Isolated from <i>Conventional</i>, <i>No Antibiotics</i>, and <i>Humane Family Owned</i> Retail Broiler Chicken Meat
Helen M. Sanchez,
Victoria A. Whitener,
Vanessa Thulsiraj,
Alicia Amundson,
Carolyn Collins,
Mckenzie Duran-Gonzalez,
Edwin Giragossian,
Allison Hornstra,
Sarah Kamel,
Andrea Maben,
Amelia Reynolds,
Elizabeth Roswell,
Benjamin Schmidt,
Lauren Sevigny,
Cindy Xiong,
Jennifer A. Jay
Affiliations
Helen M. Sanchez
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Victoria A. Whitener
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Vanessa Thulsiraj
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Alicia Amundson
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Carolyn Collins
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Mckenzie Duran-Gonzalez
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Edwin Giragossian
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Allison Hornstra
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Sarah Kamel
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Andrea Maben
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Amelia Reynolds
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Elizabeth Roswell
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Benjamin Schmidt
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Lauren Sevigny
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Cindy Xiong
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Jennifer A. Jay
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
The use of antibiotics for therapeutic and especially non-therapeutic purposes in livestock farms promotes the development of antibiotic resistance in previously susceptible bacteria through selective pressure. In this work, we examined E. coli isolates using the standard Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility protocol and the CLSI standards. Companies selling retail chicken products in Los Angeles, California were grouped into three production groupings—Conventional, No Antibiotics, and Humane Family Owned. Humane Family Owned is not a federally regulated category in the United States, but shows the reader that the chicken is incubated, hatched, raised, slaughtered, and packaged by one party, ensuring that the use of antibiotics in the entire production of the chicken is known and understood. We then examined the antibiotic resistance of the E. coli isolates (n = 325) by exposing them to seven common antibiotics, and resistance was seen to two of the antibiotics, ampicillin and erythromycin. As has been shown previously, it was found that for both ampicillin and erythromycin, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between Conventional and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)-certified No Antibiotics chicken. Unique to this work, we additionally found that Humane Family Owned chicken had fewer (p ≤ 0.05) antibiotic-resistant E. coli isolates than both of the previous. Although not considered directly clinically relevant, we chose to test erythromycin because of its ecological significance to the environmental antibiotic resistome, which is not generally done. To our knowledge, Humane Family Owned consumer chicken has not previously been studied for its antibiotic resistance. This work contributes to a better understanding of a potential strategy of chicken production for the overall benefit of human health, giving evidentiary support to the One Health approach implemented by the World Health Organization.
