Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of foodborne pathogens in value‐added commodities procured from farmers' markets in Central Virginia

Food safety concerns associated with products purchased at farmers' markets have arisen, highlighting the growing need for farmers' market consumer and producer awareness of potential public health issues. The focus of this quantitative research study was to assess the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of foodborne pathogens in select value-added commodities (i.e., animal treats, soil amendments, herbs, honey, dressings, exotic foods, etc.) randomly procured from farmers' markets in Central Virginia. Between March and November 2017, collection of 194 samples originating from 40 individual farmers' market vendors selling at 11 different farmers' markets transpired. Detection of potentially harmful bacterial species within collected samples was as follows: 0.5% Campylobacter, 24.5% Escherichia coli, 16.7% Listeria, and 1.0% Salmonella. Bacterial isolates (n = 155) of Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella were tested for their susceptibility to 12 antimicrobials. Tetracycline and ampicillin resistance showed the highest frequency among E. coli (approximately 30%) isolates. Nalidixic acid resistance was the highest in Listeria isolates (79.4%). Approximately 17% of E. coli isolates and more than 50% of each Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella isolates exhibited multidrug resistance (MDR). No E. coli isolates had matching pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles demonstrating that the isolates had a high degree of genomic diversity and farm specificity. This study demonstrated an emerging public health threat of the presence of MDR arising from farmers' market-acquired value-added commodities. The importance of this research study highlights the value of implementing good agricultural and handling practices from farm (producer vendors) to table (consumers) to avert potential foodborne illness occurrence. Future research to determine potential reasons and supply chain interventions for the observed prevalence of MDR bacterial isolates from farmers' market value-added products is paramount.

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