Escherichia coli is a common cause of mastitis in dairy cows, which results in large economic losses to the livestock industry. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of E. coli in raw milk in China, assess antimicrobial drug susceptibility, and identify key antibiotic resistance genes carried by the isolates. In total, 350 raw milk samples were collected from large-scale farms in 16 provinces and cities in six regions of China to assess the resistance of E. coli isolates to 14 antimicrobial drugs. Among the isolates, nine resistance genes were detected. Of 81 E. coli isolates (23.1%) from 350 raw milk samples, 27 (33.3%) were multidrug resistant. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that the 81 E. coli isolates were resistant to 13 (92.9%) of the 14 antibiotics, but not meropenem. The resistance gene blaTEM was highly distributed among the 27 multidrug-resistant isolates with a detection rate of 92.6%. All isolates carried at least one resistance gene, and 19 patterns of resistance gene combinations with different numbers of genes were identified. The most common gene combinations were the one-gene pattern blaTEM and the three-gene pattern blaTEM-blaPSE-blaOXA. The isolation rate of E. coli in raw milk and the identified resistance genes provide a theoretical basis for the rational use of antibiotics by clinical veterinarians.
Keywords: Escherichia coli; antimicrobial resistance; drug resistance gene; raw milk.