Foodborne Sources of ESBL-Producing Escherichia coli in Community-Acquired Urinary Tract Infections: Evidence from a Low-Income Country
Extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-Ec) causing community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTI) are presumed to originate in poultry and be transmitted to humans through contaminated meat. However, direct epidemiological and genomic evidence linking foodborne ESBL-Ec to UTI remains limited, particularly from developing countries where both UTI incidence and community carriage of ESBL-Ec are high. The aim of the study is to conduct a prospective surveillance of suspected UTI patients while simultaneously sampling high-risk food sources within same temporospatial context and to genomically characterize ESBL-Ec isolates from both sources to address this knowledge gap.