Bioactivity of Essential Oils for Mitigation of Isolated from Fresh Retail Chicken Meat.

is one of the most severe foodborne pathogens found in several habitats. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the antilisterial activity of different essential oils (EOs) against multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains isolated from fresh chicken meat. Our results showed that the prevalence of in the examined samples was 48%. Seventy-eight isolates were identified as . Out of these, 64.1% were categorized as MDR and were categorized in 18 patterns with 50 MDR isolates. One isolate was selected randomly from each pattern to investigate their biofilm-forming ability, resistance, and virulence genes incidence. Out of 18 MDR isolates, 88.9% showed biofilm-forming ability. Moreover, the most prevalent resistance genes were B (72%), A (67%), A (61%), and R genes (61%). However, the most prevalent virulence genes were A (94.4%), A (88.9%), B (83.3%), and A (83.3%). The antilisterial activity of EOs showed that cinnamon bark oil (CBO) was the most effective antilisterial agent. CBO activity could be attributed to the bioactivity of cinnamaldehyde which effects cell viability by increasing the bacterial cell electrical conductivity, ion leakage, and salt tolerance capacity loss. Therefore, CBO could be an effective alternative natural agent for food safety applications.