Abstract:

Cows are considered as reservoir hosts for many pathogenic bacteria that are resistant to broad-spectrum beta lactamase(ESBL). Presence of ESBL resistant K. pneumoniae in nasal of cows and beef meat constitutes a risk for public health due to transfer of antibiotic resistance gene from cows to environment, humans and farm animals. Therefore, the current study was concluded the detection of molecular characteristics of ESBL producing Klebsiella pneumoniae that was isolated from both cow's nostrils and from local beef samples. Fifty nasal swabs were collected from farms cows in Mosul city, and 50 samples of beef from local butcher shops for the period from February to August 2020. Bacterial isolation and identification tests were conducted for ESBL resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae using MacConkey agar medium with-1 μg/ml cefotaxime. PCR was carried out to confirm the results using special primers (SSKP 1 F and SSKP 1 R) for Klebsiella (the target gene 16srRNA). Then, a molecular examination was performed using the precursors CTX-M, TEM and SHV. Through bacterial isolation, 36 (72%) and 28 (56%) isolates were belonging to ESBL resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae from nasal samples and beef meat respectively. The CTX-M, TEM and SHV genes formed (100, 89.2, 85.7) % and (100, 72.2, 71.4) % for each the meat and nasal samples respectively. This study showed that cows play a major role in transferring ESBL producing Klebsiella pneumoniae from cows to humans as a result of environmental handling or consumption contaminated meat. 

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