Prevalence and antibiotics susceptibility of Arcobacter isolated from commercial fresh whole chicken in Shunyi District, Beijing

ObjectiveTo understand the contamination status and antibiotics resistance of Arcobacter isolated from commercial fresh whole chicken in Shunyi District.MethodsSixty fresh whole chicken from retail markets and supermarkets in Shunyi District were randomly purchased. The Bacterial isolation was carried out using the membrane filtration methods. The strains were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometery and real-time fluorescent PCR. The mass spectra of the strains were clustered. The isolated Arcobacter strains were subjected to a susceptibility test for 11 antibiotics using agar dilution method.ResultsThe detection rate of Arcobacter in 60 samples of commercially available fresh whole chicken was 26.67% （16/60） and all of them were Arcobacter butzleri. The detection rate of Arcobacter in June and July was significantly higher than that in May. Sixteen strains of Arcobacter were clustered by time-of-flight mass spectrometry and were divided into two clusters with a relative distance of 1 000. The relative distance was negatively correlated with the similarity of the strains， and the clustering map had a certain suggestive effect on the regional origin of the samples. The Arcobacter isolates were highly resistant to quinolone antibiotics and the resistance rates to nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin were 81.25% and 43.75%， respectively. The resistance rate to gentamicin （12.50%） and erythromycin （12.50%）， azithromycin （12.50%）， telithromycin （12.50%） and streptomycin （6.25%） was relatively low.ConclusionThe detection rate of Arcobacter in raw chickens in Shunyi District is high. It should be alert to the risk of food-borne diseases caused by undercooked cooking and cross-contamination.