ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1590906
This article is part of the Research TopicFood Safety in the Context of One Health: Current Trends, Challenges and PerspectivesView all 4 articles
Characterizing Antimicrobial Resistance and Plasmidome Diversity in Escherichia coli from Imported Frozen Broiler Chicken in the United Arab Emirates
Provisionally accepted
Ihab Habib1*
Mohamed Yousif Ibrahim Mohamed1
Glindya Bhagya Lakshmi1
Akela Ahmed Ghazawi2Mushtaq Khan2Hazim O Khalifa2- 1Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University, AlAin, United Arab Emirates
- 2United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The increasing occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli in the poultry chain represents a global food safety and public health concern. The present study investigates the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiles and plasmidome diversity of E. coli isolated from imported frozen broilers presented in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market. A total of 253 frozen whole carcasses supplied from four countries-Brazil, France, Oman, and Ukraine-were screened for E. coli, which was detected in 248 of the tested samples. Antimicrobial testing of 90 isolates revealed high rates of resistance to ampicillin (52.2%) and tetracycline (35.6%), with 68.9% classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 33 isolates identified 22 sequence types (STs), with ST1564 being the most frequent (12.1%). Notably, ST10 and ST58, linked to zoonotic and extraintestinal infections, were detected in a small number of isolates, underscoring their potential public health significance. The WGS analysis confirmed blaCTX-M-55 and blaCTX-M-8 as the predominant extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) genes, with co-occurrence of fluoroquinolone resistance genes (qnrS1, qnrB19) in several isolates. Plasmid analysis using the MOB-suite pipeline identified 197 putative plasmids, with 63.6% classified as conjugative. MOB-cluster AA474 was the most prevalent, and IncI-gamma/K1 and IncF plasmids commonly co-occurred with ESBL genes. MOBP was the most frequently detected relaxase type (37 plasmids), followed by MOBF (24 plasmids), highlighting the role of these conjugative elements in AMR dissemination. This study is one of the first in the Middle East to provide genomic insights into the plasmidome diversity, mobility, and relaxase distribution in poultry-associated E. coli. These findings establish a critical baseline for AMR surveillance in imported poultry and highlight the need to characterize plasmid-mediated resistance. Enhanced AMR monitoring and stricter regulations on antibiotic use in poultry production are essential to control the dissemination of E. coli carrying antimicrobial resistance in the global food supply.
Keywords: Escherichia coli, antibiotic resistance, Imported poultry, Whole-genome sequencing, UAE
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 22 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Habib, Mohamed, Lakshmi, Ghazawi, Khan and Khalifa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ihab Habib, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University, AlAin, United Arab Emirates
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.