Lettuce and fruits as a source of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter spp.

Overall, the strains were least susceptible to piperacillin (80.1%), piperacillin-tazobactam (64.1%), ceftazidime (43.1%), ciprofloxacin (16.6%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (14.9%), imipenem (14.4%) and colistin (13.3%). The most active antimicrobials were minocycline and tetracycline, with 0.6% and 3.9% of strains resistant, respectively. About 29.8% of the strains were classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR), 4.4% as extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and the prevalence of MDR strains within the A. baumannii group (25%) was similar to other species (30.4%). The presence of clinically important species as well as MDR strains in lettuces and fruits may be a threat to public health considering that they may transmit these pathogens to environments such as the community and hospital settings.