How ESBL- and Carbapenemase- Producing Genes are Mobilized- Analysis of Escherichia coli Isolates Recovered From Poultry Retail Meat in District Mardan KPK Pakistan

We report on occurrence of ESBL producing E. coli recovered from poultry meat samples collected from live bird market of district Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. We characterized these isolates for ESBL-genotypes, integron typing, insertion sequence and susceptibility against a panel of 22 different classes of drugs. Our results showed that of 100 samples, 28 E. coliisolates were multidrug resistant showing resistance to more than two antibiotics. The predominant gene wasbla VIM bla NDM-1 4/28 (14.2%). Class-1 integron was detected in 21 (75%), class-2 and class-3 integrons were detected in 25% and 7.1, respectively. ISCR1 element was identified among11isolates (39.28%). Interestingly, ISCR1 was investigated for its link with carbapenemase encoding genes and results showed that it was found linked with two bla VIM genes suggesting involvement in its mobilization.