Methods for the antibiotic resistance detection in microorgansims isolated from food

Resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem that the World HealthOrganization has declared one of the biggest threats to global health. The foodchain is one of the most important ways of transmitting and spreading resistanceto antibiotics between the population of resistant and populated by sensitivecommensal and / or pathogenic microorganisms. Resistance to antibiotics can beinborn, or acquired by mutation or lateral gene transfer. From the aspect of thespread of resistance, only resistance acquired by the lateral transfer of the geneis significant. There are numerous methods for detecting and determining thenature of antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from food. The methods mustbe standardized and ensure the consistency of the obtained results. Methods fordetermining the minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics are used to detectphenotypic resistance in bacteria isolated from food. They include a microdilutionmethod, an agar dilution method, and an E-test. Qualitative and semi-quantitativemethods commonly used in clinical isolates are not suitable for antibiotic resistancetesting in food-isolated microorganisms. In the case of microorganisms withdetected presence of phenotypic resistance to antibiotics, the presence of theresistance gene is determined. Microorganisms evidenced by the presence of geneticdeterminants associated with acquired resistance to antibiotics represent a risk ofresistance dissemination among the susceptible populations. Commercially usedmicroorganisms should not possess genetic determinants of transferable antibioticresistance.