Microbial contamination, antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation of bacteria isolated from a high-throughput pig abattoir


Submitted: 29 September 2021
Accepted: 26 January 2022
Published: 11 August 2022
Abstract Views: 793
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Supplementary Table: 53
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The aim of this work was to assess the level of microbial contamination and resistance of bacteria isolated from a highthroughput heavy pig slaughterhouse (approx. 4600 pigs/day) towards antimicrobials considered as critical for human, veterinary or both chemotherapies. Samples, pre-operative and operative, were obtained in 4 different surveys. These comprised environmental sampling, i.e. air (ntotal = 192) and surfaces (ntotal = 32), in four different locations. Moreover, a total of 40 carcasses were sampled in two different moments of slaughtering following Reg. (CE) 2073/2005. Overall, 60 different colonies were randomly selected from VRBGA plates belonging to 20 species, 15 genera and 10 families being Enterobacteriaceae, Moraxellaceae and Pseudomonadaceae the most represented ones. Thirty-seven isolates presented resistance to at least one molecule and seventeen were classified as multi-drug resistant. Enterobacteriaceae, particularly E. coli, displayed high MIC values towards trimethoprim, ampicillin, tetracycline and sulphametoxazole with MICmax of 16, 32, 32 and 512 mg/L, respectively. Moreover, isolated Pseudomonas spp. showed high MIC values in critical antibiotics such as ampicillin and azithromycin with MICmax of 32 and 64 mg/L, respectively. Additionally, in vitro biofilm formation assays demonstrated that fifteen of these isolates can be classified as strong biofilm formers. Results demonstrated that a high diversity of bacteria containing antibiotic resistant and multiresistant species is present in the sampled abattoir. Considering these findings, it could be hypothesised that the processing environment could be a potential diffusion determinant of antibiotic resistant bacteria through the food chain and operators.


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Supporting Agencies

Ministero della Salute

1.
Ghidini S, De Luca S, Rodríguez-López P, Simon AC, Liuzzo G, Poli L, Ianieri A, Zanardi E. Microbial contamination, antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation of bacteria isolated from a high-throughput pig abattoir. Ital J Food Safety [Internet]. 2022 Aug. 11 [cited 2024 May 8];11(3). Available from: https://www.pagepressjournals.org/ijfs/article/view/10160

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