High prevalence of the mcr-1 gene in retail chicken meat in the Netherlands in 2015

[Gert van der Hoek]

• [FONT=&quot]Eefje J. A. SchrauwenEmail authorView ORCID ID profile,[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Pepijn Huizinga,[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Nick van Spreuwel,[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Carlo Verhulst,[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Marjolein F. Q. Kluytmans-van den Bergh and[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Jan A. J. W. Kluytmans[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control20176:83
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-017-0242-8
? The Author(s). 2017


Received: 1 June 2017
Accepted: 9 August 2017
Published: 18 August 2017[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Abstract

Recently, plasmid-mediated colistin resistance was reported in humans, animals and food. We studied the presence of mcr-1 and mcr-2 in Dutch retail chicken meat. The prevalence of mcr-1 was 24,8% (53/214), whereas mcr-2 was not found.

The presence of mcr-1-positive Enterobacteriaceae was confirmed by culture in 34/53 samples (64,2%). The prevalence depended on the supermarket chain and was lower in free-range chicken samples.

The unexpected high prevalence of mcr-1 in food is cause for concern.[/FONT]

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

The mobilized colistin resistance (mcr-1) gene confers plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin, one of a number of last-resort antibiotics for treating gram negative infections. mcr-1 is capable of horizontal transfer between different strains of a bacterial species and after discovery in November 2015 in E. coli (strain SHP45) from a pig in China it has been found in Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumonia, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Enterobacter cloacae.

As of 2017, it has been detected in more than 30 countries on 5 continents in less than a year.