¹Avrupa Vocational School, TR-34020 Kazlıçeşme, Istanbul - TURKEY
²Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University, TR-34320 Avcılar, Istanbul - TURKEY
³Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Atatürk University, TR-25090 Erzurum - TURKEY
⁴Department of Food Hygiene and Technology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul Univ., TR-34320 Avcılar, Istanbul - TURKEY
⁵Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Pamukkale University, TR-20070 Denizli - TURKEY DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2018.19741 Globally, the spread of antibiotic resistance via chicken meat consumption cause serious public health concerns. With this respect, the current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter species isolated from raw meat chicken samples and their genetic determinants of resistance to various classes of antibiotics. A total of 540 chicken raw meat samples collected from various supermarkets and slaughterhouses in Istanbul, Turkey were analyzed according to EN ISO 10272-1:2006 standard procedure. For identification of the genus and species of the isolates, multiplex PCR assay was held. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of the antimicrobial agents (nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, gentamicin, kanamycin, and erythromycin) were initially determined using the broth microdilution method. In addition, the genetic determinants of antimicrobial resistance were investigated by PCR assays. In total, 357 (66.1%) Campylobacter isolates were obtained including 268 Campylobacter jejuni and 89 Campylobacter coli. Resistance to quinolones (nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin) was the most common in all strains (80.1%), followed by resistance to tetracycline"s (70.3%). The lowest resistance was determined as resistance to kanamycin (4.2%). Gentamicin and erythromycin resistance was not observed in this study. Only five C. coli isolate (1.4%) was classified as multidrug resistant. On the basis of these data, execute widely presence of antimicrobial resistance to quinolones and tetracycline"s in C. jejuni and C. coli isolates from chicken raw meat samples and emphasizes that further multidisciplinary studies and novel strategies in the spirit of "One Health" are needed. Keywords : Campylobacter, Raw chicken meat, Prevalence, Antimicrobial resistance, PCR