Many β-lactam antimicrobials, including cephalosporins, have been used in both veterinary and human medicine in the treatment of zoonotic and infectious diseases. Especially, third-generation cephalosporins such as ceftiofur have been approved for systemic use in food-producing animals, which has resulted in the emergence of β-lactamase genes. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of β-lactamase-producing E. coli isolated from commercial layers and characterized their antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes. Among the 85 cefotaxime (CTX)-resistant E. coli, all isolates showed resistance to at least one antimicrobial, and the rates of resistance to nalidixic acid, cephalothin, ampicillin, and cefazolin were more than 50.0%. In particular, 28 isolates were identified as containing b-lactamase genes. The extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and plasmid-mediated AmpC genes blaCTX-M-1, blaCTX-M-14, blaCTX-M-15, and blaCMY-2 were detected in 1, 6, 5, and 4 isolates, respectively. The non-ESBL/pAmpC gene blaTEM-1 was detected in 12 isolates. The distribution of antimicrobial resistance genes in 28 β-lactamase-producing E. coli was as follows: aac(3)-II (64.3%), sul2 (32.1%), tetA (28.6%), sul1 (25.0%), cmlA gene (25.0%), and tetB (14.3%). In total, 6 virulence genes (astA, eaeA, escV, fimH, iucC, and papC) were also identified and the rates in virulence gene were as below: fimH (92.9%), iucC (25.0%), astA (21.4%), papC (10.7%), eaeA (7.1%) and escV (7.1%). Our findings suggest that antimicrobials used in commercial layer must be regulated in Korea, and comprehensive surveillance is necessary to prevent the dissemination of resistant isolates.

Poultry play an important role in meeting the protein demand through the supply of chicken meat and eggs, and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria can be transmitted from poultry to humans through the food chain. In this study, 716 E. coli isolates were collected from poultry industry in Korea during the period from 2016-2018. Among the cephalosporin antimicrobial, the rate of resistance to first-cephalosporins (cefazolin and cephalexin) was more than 18.0% but secondcephalosporins (cefoxitin and cefuroxime) and four-cephalosporins (cefepime) was less than 10.0%, without any differences based on the poultry. In quinolone antimicrobial, the rate of resistance to nalidixic acid was more than 46.0% in all poultry but ciprofloxacin was more than 44.0% in broiler farm and chicken meat and less than 18.0% in layer farm and egg. In addition, the rate of resistance to ampicillin and tetracycline was more than 30.0% without any differences in poultry, but the rate of resistance to amoxicillin - clavulanate, trimethoprim - sulfamethoxazole, imipenem and gentamicin was higher in broiler farm and chicken meat than in layer farm and egg. MDR was detected in 120 (60.6%), 113 (79.6%), 80 (37.0%), and 75 (46.9%) isolates from broiler farm, chicken meat, layer farm, and egg, respectively, with an overall prevalence of 54.2% (388/716).