Impact of food animal trade on the spread of mcr-1-mediated colistin resistance, Tunisia, July 2015

Raoudha Grami (1, 2) , Wejdene Mansour (1, 3) , Wahib Mehri (4) , Olfa Bouallègue (1) , Noureddine Boujaâfar (1) , Jean-Yves Madec (2) , Marisa Haenni (2)

1 CHU Sahloul - Hôpital Universitaire Sahloul
2 AVB - Unité Antibiorésistance et Virulence Bactériennes
3 Institut Supérieur des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie de Mahdia
4 Commissariat Régional au Développement Agricole

We report a high prevalence of MCR-1 and CTX-M-1-producing Escherichia coli in three Tunisian chicken farms. Chickens were imported from France or derived from French imported chicks. The same IncHI2-type plasmid reported to carry those genes in cattle in France and in a food sample in Portugal was found in Tunisian chickens of French origin. This suggests a significant impact of food animal trade on the spread of mcr-1 -mediated colistin resistance in Europe.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Bacteriology

Raoudha Grami, Wejdene Mansour, Wahib Mehri, Olfa Bouallègue, Noureddine Boujaâfar, et al.. Impact of food animal trade on the spread of mcr-1-mediated colistin resistance, Tunisia, July 2015. Eurosurveillance, 2016, 21 (8), pii=30144. ⟨10.2807/1560-7917.es.2016.21.8.30144⟩. ⟨anses-04020397⟩