Short communication Increased raw poultry meat colonization by extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli in the south of Spain Pilar Egea a, b , Lorena López-Cerero b, ⁎, Eva Torres a , María del Carmen Gómez-Sánchez c , Lara Serrano a , María Dolores Navarro Sánchez-Ortiz b , Jesús Rodriguez-Baño b, d , Alvaro Pascual a, b a Microbiology Department, School of Medicine, University of Sevilla, Avda. Sánchez Pizjuán s/n. 41009, Sevilla, Spain b Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Unit, University Hospital Virgen Macarena, Avda Dr Fedriani s/n. 41009, Sevilla, Spain c Hospital Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Osuna, Avda. de la Constitución 2, 41640, Sevilla, Spain d Internal Medicine Department, School of Medicine, University of Sevilla, Avda. Sánchez Pizjuán s/n. 41009, Sevilla, Spain abstract article info Article history: Received 8 March 2012 Received in revised form 10 July 2012 Accepted 4 August 2012 Available online 9 August 2012 Keywords: ESBLs E. coli Poultry The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of retail chicken and turkey meat colonized by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBLEC) in Seville, Spain. ESBLEC recovered from meat samples purchased in 2010 were characterized by specific PCR analysis for bla genes, phylogenetic groups and subgroups (genotypes) and O25b/pabB/B2 traits of ST131. Results were compared with those obtained in a previous study in 2007, when a high percentage of retail meat samples were found to be colonized by ESBLEC. The prevalence of retail poultry meat colonized by ESBLEC increased from 62.5% in 2007 to 93.3% in 2010 (p = 0.005). Non-pathogenic B1 and A 1 genotypes accounted for more than 60% of the 60 isolates recovered. Sequence type ST131 or B2 phylogroup isolates were not detected. Clonal relatedness was detected in just 2 CTX-M-1-producing isolates from 2 chicken samples belonging to phylogenetic group A, genotype A 1 . There continued to be a significantly high quinolone resistance, with 85.4% and 32.2% of isolates showing resistance to nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin, respectively. SHV-12 was the most common ESBL harbored by E. coli, although it has decreased in prevalence since 2007. Meanwhile, CTX-M ESBLs prevalence has increased. We conclude that the trend of colonization by ESBLECs—particularly CTX-M-producing isolates— in raw poultry meat has increased in a short period of time in our area. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the last few years, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBLEC) has emerged in the community causing human infections all over the world (Coque et al., 2008; Rodriguez-Bano et al., 2008a). In ESBL-producers, resistance to third-generation cephalospo- rins is usually accompanied by resistance to other antibiotics, such as aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones. The epidemiology of ESBLEC is both evolving and complex. The potential role of food-producing animals as a possible reservoir of ESBLEC is currently being analyzed from different perspectives. Several reports describing the spread of extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae mainly in the poultry industry (Blanc et al., 2006; Randall et al., 2011; Smet et al., 2008), but also in wild animals (Costa et al., 2006), pets (Carattoli et al., 2005) and retail meat (Aarestrup et al., 2006; Jouini et al., 2007) have been published. Various authors have also reported a relatively high prevalence in our country of healthy human carriers of faecal ESBLEC (Rodriguez-Bano et al., 2008b; Valverde et al., 2004). In recent years, a few studies have provided evidence that ESBLECs and plasmid-encoded ESBLs can be transmitted between humans who have shared the same meal (Lavilla et al., 2008; Prats et al., 2003). The contamination of meat products by ESBLECs may therefore be contributing to the dissemination of the beta-lactamase encoding genes (bla), such as ESBLs, within the human population. In a previous study carried out by our group in Seville between 2006 and 2007, the prevalence of ESBLEC isolates in food samples of animal origin was analyzed. A high proportion of retail meat samples was found to be colonized by ESBLECs, mostly non-pathogenic (phylogenetic groups A and B1) (Doi et al., 2010). Recently, a group of isolates sharing the same sequence type (ST) by multi locus sequence type (MLST), named as ST131, has emerged as a widespread clonal group causing human infections in our country. ST131 is characterized by serotype O25b:H4, allele 3 of pabB gene and belongs to phylogenetic group B2, genotype B2 3 . Ten percent of these isolates has been found producing an ESBL of the CTX-M family, the CTX-M-15 enzyme, in Spain (Blanco et al., 2011). Besides, ST131 isolates have emerged as a human pathogen producing several types of ESBLs all over the world (Coelho et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2011). Isolates belonging to this clonal group have also been detected among E. coli poultry isolates harbor bla CTX-M-9 in Spain (Mora et al., 2010). International Journal of Food Microbiology 159 (2012) 69–73 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 34 955008138; fax: + 34 954377413. E-mail address: llopez@us.es (L. López-Cerero). 0168-1605/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2012.08.002 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Food Microbiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfoodmicro