Prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from commercial poultry carcasses in Ardabil province, Iran

Abstract

Poultry especially broiler constitutes a large part of protein production in Iran. Nonetheless, farmers use antibiotics for prevention, treatment, and growth enhancement. The objective of this investigation was to determine antibiotic resistance patterns of  S. aureus isolated from commercial poultry carcasses in Ardabil province, northwest of Iran. Samples were taken from heart blood and liver’s visceral surface of 125 carcasses obtained from 30 flocks (including 27 broiler flocks, 1 laying flocks and 2 breeder flocks) located in different parts of Ardabil province. The isolates of S. aureus were determined based on microbiological standard methods. The antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. 98 bacteria isolates were identified from 125 carcasses while no bacteria were found in 34 carcasses. Out of 98 isolates, 8 (8.16%) isolates were detected as Staphylococcus aureus. The S. aureus isolates showed resistance to Doxycycline (100 %), Ampicillin (87.5%), followed by Methicillin (75.0%), Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (62.5%), Ciprofloxacin (62.5%), Erythromycin (50.0%), Chloramphenicol (37. 5%), Gentamicin (37.5%), Vancomycin (25.0%) and Cefoxitin (12.5%). Our data indicated that antimicrobial resistance of S. aureus was in poultry flocks of Ardabil province, northwest of Iran, and that antibiotics, especially tetracycline and ampicillin, to treat in poultry should be used with caution.