Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of extended spectrum ?-lactamase (ESBL) producing E.coli in retailed chicken thigh, breast and wing meats, with and without packaging.

Materials and Methods: In the study, retailed 30 chicken thigh, 30 chicken breast and 30 chicken wing samples, were used as materials. After pre-enrichment, each sample was plated to the Brillance ESBL medium and incubated. Up to 5 suspected colonies were selected and plated to the EMB medium. Then the isolates were identified as E. coli by IMViC test. In order to determine the ESBL production of the isolates phenotypically combined disc diffusion test was performed according to the CSLI.

Results: From the 159 suspicious isolates, 152 (95.5%) of them identified as E.coli. According to combined disc diffusion test 28 (18.4%) of the isolates were ESBL positive. 17 (60%) ESBL producing isolates were found in the breast meat samples while 9 (32%) isolates from thigh and 2 (7%) isolates from wings were positive for ESBL production. The distribution of ESBL producing E. coli isolates in packaged and unpackaged samples were determined as 71% and 28%, respectively.

Conclusion: The presence of ESBL producing E. coli in chicken meats indicates that foods may also be an important source for the transmission of this resistance to human. Although foods are regularly examined in the context of pathogenic bacteria, bacteria producing GSBL are not covered by this. For this reason, it is suggested to determine the isolates genotypically about this resistance by analysis.