Abstract

One of the major public health challenges nowadays is the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistant pathogens. This study investigated the antibiotic resistance pattern in bacterial isolates obtained from frozen food samples of animal origin in Sanandaj and Ahvaz Iran. A total of 250 packages of food of animal origin were purchased from different separate grocery stores in Sanandaj and Ahvaz during one year. Bacteria were isolated and identified based on national procedures. Antibiogram was done according CLSI guideline. From a total of 250 samples collected from Sanandaj and Ahvaz, 68 (54.4%) and 71 (56.8%) were positive for bacteria respectively. In Sanandaj Prevalence of Escherichia coli, Citrobacter Spp, Enterobacter Spp, Staphylococcocus Spp, and Bacillus cereus was 40, 18, 05, 03 and 2% respectively. The most contaminated food was chicken nuggets (80%). Antibiogram results clearly showed that resistance to Tetracycline and Ampicillin was 55 and 50% respectively. Similarly, in Ahvaz also prevalence of E. coli, SalmonellaSpp, and Proteus Spp, were 52, 03.2 and 02.4% respectively. The above bacteria were 39 and 26% resistance to Ampicillin and Tetracycline respectively. The frozen food samples are perhaps the potential vehicles for transmitting food-borne diseases. Antimicrobial resistance among enteric organisms in food animals was generally low; however, the significance of this study lies in the detection overall resistance of bacterial isolates from the frozen food samples of animal origin in Ahvaz and Sanandaj against different antibiotics.

Key words: Frozen food, antimicrobial resistance, Escherichia coli.