Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles of Isolates on Chickens Processed and Retailed at Outlets of the Informal Market in Gauteng Province, South Africa.

The study determined the antimicrobial resistance profiles of on chickens processed and retailed at outlets of the informal markets in Gauteng province, South Africa. The study also investigated the relationship of antimicrobial resistant to the source and type of samples and their serotypes. Carcass swabs, cloacal swabs and carcass drips were randomly collected from each of 151 slaughtered chickens from six townships. Isolation and identification were performed using standard and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. The disc diffusion method was used to determine the resistance of isolates to 16 antimicrobial agents and PCR to determine their serovars. Ninety-eight (64.9%) of the 151 chickens were contaminated with of which 94.9% (93/98) were resistant serovars. The frequency of antimicrobial resistance of isolates was high to erythromycin (94.9%) and spectinomycin (82.7%) but was low to ciprofloxacin (1.0%) and norfloxacin (1.0%) ( < 0.05). All 170 isolates of tested exhibited resistance to one or more antimicrobial agents and the frequency varied significantly ( < 0.05) across the townships, the type of samples and the serovars. The prevalence of multidrug resistance (MDR) in was 81.8% (139/170). Our findings pose zoonotic, food safety and therapeutic risks to workers and consumers of undercooked, contaminated chickens from these outlets.