Occurrence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Proteus mirabilis from Chicken Carcass

The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of Proteus mirabilis (P. mirabilis) in poultry meat and to find its antimicrobial susceptibility. P. mirabilis has been frequently isolated from poultry and poses potential threat to public health. The pathogen resides in broiler’s intestine, so it can be a source of contamination of chicken carcass in a slaughterhouse. A total of 50 samples of chicken carcass (from liver n=15, from intestine n=15, from thigh n=11 and from wings n=9) were taken from Faisalabad and cultured on Xylose Lysine Deoxycholate agar (XLD) for isolation and purification of P. mirabilis. Percent positivity of P. mirabilis in liver was found to be 60%, 46% in intestine, 36% in thigh and 33% in wings. P. mirabilis isolates showed high resistance to tetracycline (100%) and piperacillin (91.3%) while low resistance was shown to ceftazidime (8.6%). The study concluded that chicken could be the source of P. mirabilis and it can be a source of infection in human and animals.