Extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolated from raw vegetables in South Korea

The increasing prevalence of oxyimino-cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae has become a global concern because of their clinical impact on both human and veterinary medicine. The present study determined the prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility, and molecular genetic features of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) isolates from raw vegetables. A total of 1324 samples were collected from two agricultural wholesale markets in Incheon, South Korea in 2018. The ESBL-EC strains were isolated from 0.83% (11/1324) samples, and all of them were resistant to ampicillin, piperacillin, cefazoline, cefotaxime, and nalidixic acid and yielded CTX-M-type ESBL, including CTX-M-14, CTX-M-15, CTX-M-55, CTX-M-27, and CTX-M-65. The isolates belonged to phylogenetic subgroups D (n = 5), A (n = 4), and B1 (n = 2). Multilocus sequence typing revealed nine known E. coli sequence types (STs), including ST10, ST38, ST69, ST101, ST224, ST349, ST354, ST2509, ST2847, and two new STs. Notably, ST69, ST10, ST38, and ST354 belong to the major human-associated extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli lineages. Our results demonstrate that ESBL-producing multidrug-resistant pathogens may be transmitted to humans through the vegetable intake, highlighting the importance of resistance monitoring and intervention in the One Health perspective.