Antimicrobial Resistance of Enterococcus Species Isolated from Chicken in Turkey

The aim of the present work was to provide information about Enterococcus strains isolated from pre-packaged chicken samples in Ankara (Turkey), focusing on their prevalence, phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, and antibiotic resistance. We report the first study on the occurrence of antibiotic resistant enterococci in pre-packaged chicken samples in Ankara. A total of 97 suspicious enterococcal isolates were identified from 122 chicken samples. All isolates were identified to species level by phenotypic and molecular methods. In the 16S rDNA sequence analysis, Enterococcus faecium (61.85%) and Enterococcus faecalis (38.15%) were found to be the most frequently detected Enterococcus spp. Of the 97 isolates tested for hemolytic activity, 12.37% enterococcal strains were ${\beta}$-hemolytic. ${\beta}$-Hemolysin was most prevalent among E. faecium (58.33%) compared to E. faecalis (41.66%). Disk diffusion method was used for determining of antibiotic resistance. The analysis of the antimicrobial resistance of the 97 Enterococcus isolates revealed that the resistance to kanamycin (98.96%), rifampicin (80.41%) and ampicillin (60.82%) was most frequent. Furthermore, resistance to erythromycin (38.14%) and ciprofloxacin (34.02%) was also observed. The frequencies of resistance to tetracycline (9.27%), penicillin G (8.24%), and chloramphenicol (3.09%), gentamicin (2.06%) and streptomycin (1.03%) were low. None of the isolates was resistant to vancomycin. Multi-drug resistance was found in 97.93% of Enterococcus strains. E. faecium strains showed a more resistant phenotype than E. faecalis strains according to the antibiotic resistance levels. The results of this study indicated that chicken meat is a potential reservoir for the transmission of antibiotic resistance from animals to humans.