Antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli in various meat samples in Ghana

• Main Author: Sultan, Stella Amelia
• Other Authors: Joergen Schlundt
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Drug Resistance
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76186
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this study, whole genome sequencing and comparative genomics analysis were done for 16 Salmonella enterica (S. enterica) and 14 Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains from different meat samples in Ghana, namely beef, chevon, mutton, guinea fowl and local chicken. The following online bioinformatics tools by DTU - KmerFinder, MLST, ResFinder, SerotypeFinder, plasmidFinder and pMLST, and Deng Lab – SeqSero were used for the genomic analyses of assembled sequence. The most common S. enterica serovar was Hato (either sequence type (ST) 3899 or unknown) and they were isolated from meats of both guinea fowl (n=3) and local chicken (n=3). On the contrary, the STs of E. coli were more varied. Among the S. enterica strains, only one carried resistance gene. In contrast, all E. coli strains contained at least one resistance gene and 57.1% of them are multidrug resistant (MDR), with a maximum of 9 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) determinants belonging to 7 antibiotic classes. One of the MDR E. coli isolate contained blaCTX-M-15 gene and was confirmed to be extended spectrum beta-lactamase positive by double disc synergy test. In summary, this study provides a snapshot of the molecular epidemiology of food S. enterica and E. coli strains from meat samples in Ghana and to the best of our knowledge, it is the first to report the use of whole genome sequencing analysis of such food isolates in Ghana.