Occurrence of ESBL‐Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in Ready‐to‐eat Street Foods in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire

Aims: This study aimed to estimate the occurrence of ESBL-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) in ready-to-eat street foods.

Study Design: It's a prospective study

Place and Duration of Study: foods samples were collected from February 2016 to June 2017 from street vendors in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire

Methodology: A total of 300 foods samples were collected from February 2016 to June 2017 from street vendors in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire. After a microbiological analysis, bacterial identification was performed according to the conventional microbiological tests. Antibiotic sensitivity of K. pneumoniae isolates to 18 antibiotics was determined by the disk diffusion method and by VITEK 2. Phenotypic and molecular detection of producing extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) was performed by Chromogenic medium and double disk synergy test and by PCR method.

Results: Four percentages (4 %) of foods samples were contaminated by K. pneumoniae. Most of the 12 K. pneumoniae strains isolated expressed resistance to the various classes of antibiotics used. Of the 12 strains, one was ESBL-producing, representing a prevalence of 8 %. This strain was isolated from cooked cow's milk and resistant with all 18 antibiotics tested except gentamicin and sulfamethoxazol-trimepothrim. This strain harbored only blaSHV gene.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that RTE foods are a reservoir of resistant bacteria. Thus, they may play a role in spreading antimicrobial resistant bacteria and ESBL genes to humans.