{"id":25895,"date":"2025-04-19T16:23:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T10:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=25895"},"modified":"2025-04-19T16:23:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T10:38:55","slug":"antibiotic-resistant-e-albertii-on-the-rise-in-bangladeshi-chicken-shops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/antibiotic-resistant-e-albertii-on-the-rise-in-bangladeshi-chicken-shops\/","title":{"rendered":"Antibiotic-resistant E. albertii on the rise in Bangladeshi chicken shops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"675\" height=\"442\" src=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-675x442.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25896\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-675x442.jpg 675w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-611x400.jpg 611w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-550x360.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg 736w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Foodborne pathogen in Bangladesh retail poultry: Researchers analyzed meat, worker hand swabs, and processing tools to track E. albertii contamination.<\/em> <strong>IMAGE:<\/strong> OMU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have ever chickened out of eating chicken, your unease may not have been unreasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have detected alarming rates of&nbsp;<em>Escherichia albertii<\/em>, an emerging foodborne pathogen, in retail chicken meat in Bangladesh. Their findings show extensive contamination and significant antimicrobial resistance, underscoring the potential risks to public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>E. albertii<\/em>\u00a0is a less-known but probably not less dangerous relative of\u00a0E. coli. First described in Bangladesh in 2003, this bacterium causes gastrointestinal illnesses, including diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. In Japan,\u00a0<em>E. albertii\u00a0<\/em>has been linked to multiple mass food poisoning outbreaks affecting over 100 people at a time. Despite its medical significance, however, this bacterium is often misidentified and not wholly understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile undercooked chicken has been suspected as a transmission route, much remains unknown about the sources and spread of&nbsp;<em>E.<\/em>&nbsp;<em>albertii<\/em>, especially in developing countries,\u201d said Atsushi Hinenoya, an associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University\u2019s Graduate School of Veterinary Science and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tracking this evasive pathogen back to its original source, the researchers collected samples from 17 poultry retail shops across four districts (upazilas) in Bangladesh. They tested chicken meat, internal organs, cloacal swabs, worker hand swabs, and processing utensils for contamination and antimicrobial resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their PCR analysis revealed striking contamination rates:\u00a0<em>E. albertii<\/em>\u00a0was present in 63.9% of chicken meat samples and 71.4% of cloacal swabs. It was also found on human hands (45.5%), processing blades (10%), and bleeding cones (13.3%). Genetic similarities among isolates from the same shop from meat, cloacal swabs, and worker hands suggest cross-contamination during processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAlarmingly, 94.4% of\u00a0<em>E. albertii<\/em>\u00a0isolates exhibited resistance to at least one antibiotic, and 50% were multidrug-resistant, showing resistance to critical drugs such as tetracycline, ampicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, and ciprofloxacin,\u201d Hinenoya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whole genome sequencing further confirmed the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes and virulence factors, which contribute to the pathogen\u2019s ability to cause disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur study highlights the urgent need for better hygiene measures in poultry processing, stricter antibiotic regulations, and enhanced monitoring to prevent foodborne infections,\u201d Hinenoya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Addressing this potential public health risk, the researchers plan to investigate human infections, compare bacterial strains from poultry and patients, and map contamination pathways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWith the global movement of food and people, tackling&nbsp;<em>E. albertii<\/em>&nbsp;requires international collaboration,\u201d Hinenoya said. \u201cWe aim to expand molecular epidemiology studies and intervention strategies in Bangladesh to curb its spread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study was published in the&nbsp;<em>International Journal of Food Microbiology<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have ever chickened out of eating chicken, your unease may not have been unreasonable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-611x400.jpg",611,400,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-675x442.jpg",675,442,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-600x482.jpg",600,482,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-600x482.jpg",600,482,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",736,482,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",640,419,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",96,63,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E.-albertii-contamination-in-chicken.jpg",150,98,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/category\/health\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Health<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/category\/news\/research\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25897,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25895\/revisions\/25897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}