# Global dissemination of multidrug-resistant E. coli co-expressing ESBL/pAmpC and mcr-1 genes in chicken farms in Lebanon

Myriam Mikhayel, Sébastien Leclercq, Benoît Doublet, Dolla Karam Sarkis

► To cite this version:

Myriam Mikhayel, Sébastien Leclercq, Benoît Doublet, Dolla Karam Sarkis. Global dissemination of multidrug-resistant E. coli co-expressing ESBL/pAmpC and mcr-1 genes in chicken farms in Lebanon. 30. European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2020), 2020, On-line, France., 4118. hal-03356499

HAL Id: hal-03356499

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03356499

Submitted on 28 Sep 2021

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Global dissemination of multidrug-resistant *Escherichia coli* co-expressing ESBL/pAmpC and mcr-1 genes in chicken farms in Lebanon

Myriam Mikhayel*<fnref n="1" />,², Sébastien Leclercq², Benoit Doublet², Dolla Karam Sarkis<fnref n="1" />

**Abstract third-party references:** Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Centre Val de Loire, France

**Background:** Poultry production is a main contributor of the global trend of antimicrobial resistance arising from food-producing animals worldwide. In Lebanon, abusive and inappropriate use of antibiotics is frequent in chickens for prophylactic reasons and to increase productivity. In absence of a surveillance system, the present objective is to decipher the spread of expanded-spectrum cephalosporin (ESC)-resistant *Escherichia coli* in poultry in Lebanon.

**Materials/methods:** Rectal swabs (n=280 healthy chickens) from 56 farms across the country were screened for the presence of ESC-resistant *E. coli* isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility and expanded-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)/AmpC production were determined by the disk-diffusion method. Whole genome sequencing of a set of representative isolates (n=221) was performed to determine the phylogenetic diversity, acquired resistance genes and plasmids using the CGE tools suite.

**Results:** From 56 poultry farms, 51 harboured ESC-resistant *E. coli*. Nearly all ESC-resistant *E. coli* isolates were multidrug-resistant with frequent additional resistance to fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides. Among the 221 sequenced *E. coli* isolates, the proportion of ESBL, pAmpC-producers and ESBL/pAmpC co-producers were 56%, 24%, and 20%, respectively. The most prevalent ESBL genes were *bla*<sub>CTX-M-3</sub>, *bla*<sub>CTX-M-15</sub>, *bla*<sub>CTX-M-55</sub>, *bla*<sub>CTX-M-27</sub> (n=79; 40; 24; 21, respectively). Surprisingly, only one isolate harboured the *bla*<sub>CTX-M-1</sub> gene usually associated with livestock production. The pAmpC cephalosporinase gene *bla*<sub>CMY-2</sub> was dominant (n=91/91). The dramatic proportion of fluoroquinolone-resistant *E. coli* isolates co-expressing ESBL and/or AmpC genes and the mobile colistin resistance gene *mcr-1* (n=54) is especially worrisome. These ESC-resistant isolates belonged to a great diversity of sequence-types, most being well-known avian-associated (ST-117, ST-10, ST-48 and ST-93), and sometimes pathogenic. Numerous different plasmids were identified suggesting their roles in the spread of these resistance genes in the *E. coli* population.

**Conclusions:** For the first time, this study illustrates the alarming prevalence of multidrug-resistant *E. coli*, especially to medically-important antibiotics, in broiler production in Lebanon. Further molecular studies are needed to understand the country-specific epidemiology of ESBL/AmpC and *mcr-1* genes in the Lebanese poultry production. Our results also advocate the urge for surveillance programs and action plans in Lebanon to reduce the abusive use of antibiotics and to limit the spread of multidrug-resistance in food-producing animals.

**Presenter email address:** myriam.mikhayel@gmail.com

<footnote n="1">¹Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth, Laboratoire de microbiologie, Faculté de Pharmacie, Beirut, Lebanon, ²Université de Tours, UMR 1282, Infectiologie et santé publique, INRA, Nouzilly, France</footnote>