ABSTRACT
Despite the high value of poultry meat, there is no accurate control and inspection on poultry carcasses in the slaughterhouse. Therefore, the possibility of transmission of some bacteria like Escherichia coli which is one of the main causes of food poisoning is not unexpected. The present study was carried out to detect and analyse antibiotic resistance pattern of Escherichia coli O157 isolated from pheasant, partridge, duck and goose meat in Gilan, Mazandaran, Isfahan and Fars provinces, Iran. For doing the experiments, 25, 17, 22 and 36 samples from pheasant, partridge, duck and goose chest muscle meat were collected, respectively. The samples were immediately transferred to the laboratory in cooler ice-pack. All samples were cultured and DNA was extracted from the typical bacterial colonies which represent Escherichia coli. Polymerase chain reaction was used to confirme the diagnosis and to detect O157 serogroup. Finally, the antibiotic resistance pattern was studied using simple disk diffusion method. The results showed that 27% of samples were positive for presence of Escherichia coli; 6 of them had the O157 serogroup. The goose and partridge meat had the highest and lowest frequencies of bacterium and O157 serogroup, respectively. The Escherichia coli which were isolated from poultry meat had the highest antibiotic resistance to sulfamethoxazol and vancomycinand the lowest antibiotic resistance to ciprofloxacinand gentamycin. A significant statistical difference [P < 0.05] was seen between the prevalence rate of the bacterium and O157 serogroup in goose and partridge meat and between the levels of resistance to various antibiotics. We recommended using Polymerase Chain Reaction as an accurate, rapid and safe method to control presence of some pathogens like Escherichia coli. This study showed that using simple disk diffusion method is very essential before antibiotic prescription.