Characterization of antimicrobial resistance in Klebsiella species isolated from chicken broilers

The prevalence of antimicrobial resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in poultry products has been a public concern, as it severely endangers food safety and human health. In this study, we investigated 90 antimicrobial resistant Klebsiella strains that were isolated from a commercial broiler slaughter plant in Shandong province of China. Nearly all (89/90) of the isolates were identified as infectious phylogenetic group KpI-type K. pneumoniae. Out of these 90 strains, 87 (96.7%) were multidrug-resistant isolates, and 87 (96.7%) were extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing isolates. An analysis of the prevalence of quinolone resistance genes showed that 7.8%, 77.8%, 26.7%, and 2.2% of the strains carried the qnrA, qnrB, qnrS, and qepA genes, respectively. An analysis of beta-lactam resistance genes showed that a high percentage of the strains contain the blaTEM (76.7%), blaSHV (88.9%), and blaCTX-M (75.6%) genes, among which three blaSHV subtypes (blaSHV-1, n=30; blaSHV-11, n=38; blaSHV-12, n=12) and three blaCTX-M subtypes (blaCTX-M-14, n=14; blaCTX-M-15, n=35; blaCTX-M-55, n=19) were found. A further investigation of mobile genetic elements involved in horizontal multidrug resistance gene transfer showed the presence of class 1 and 2 integrons in 77 (85.6%) and five (5.6%) isolates, respectively, while no class 3 integrons were detected. Four types of class 1 integrons containing specific gene cassette arrays (dfrA12–orfF–aadA2, dfrA17–aadA5, dfrA1–aadA1, and empty) were identified. Only one gene cassette array (dfrA1–sat2–aadA1) was detected in the class 2 integrons. Furthermore, four different types of insertion sequence common region 1 (ISCR1)-mediated downstream structures were successfully identified in 46 class 1 integron-positive isolates, among which ISCR1–sapA-like–qnrB2–qacEΔ1 was the most commonly observed structure. Chi-square tests revealed a significant association between ESBL genes, plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) genes, and class 1 integrons (p