Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance and Clonal Relationship in ESBL/AmpC-Producing Proteus mirabilis Isolated from Meat Products and Community-Acquired Urinary Tract Infection (UTI-CA) in Southern Brazil.

The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and clonal relationships in Proteus mirabilis isolated from chicken meat, beef, pork, and community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTI-CA). Chicken meat isolates showed the highest multidrug resistance (MDR), followed by those from pork and UTI-CA, whereas beef had relatively few MDR strains. All sources had strains that carried bla CTX-M-65 , whereas bla CTX-M-2 and bla CMY-2 were only detected in chicken meat and UTI-CA isolates. This indicates that chicken meat should be considered an important risk factor for the spread of P. mirabilis carrying ESBL and AmpC . Furthermore, ESBL/AmpC producing strains were resistant to a greater number of antimicrobials and possessed more resistance genes than non-producing strains. In addition, the antimicrobial resistance genes qnrD , aac(6')-Ib-cr , sul1 , sul2 , fosA3 , cmlA, and floR were also found. Molecular typing showed a genetic similarity between chicken meat and UTI-CA isolates, including some strains with 100% similarity, indicating that chicken can be a source of P. mirabilis causing UTI-CA. It was concluded that meat, especially chicken meat, can be an important source of dissemination of multidrug-resistant P. mirabilis in the community.