Antibiotic Resistance of Escherichia coli Isolated from Conventional, No Antibiotics, and Humane Family Owned 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

doi:10.3390/ani10122217

Animals (Nov 2020)

Antibiotic Resistance of Escherichia coli Isolated from Conventional, No Antibiotics, and Humane Family Owned 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

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10122217
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 10, no. 12
p. 2217

Abstract

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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.

Published in Animals

ISSN: 2076-2615 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Agriculture: Animal culture: Veterinary medicine; Science: Zoology
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals/

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