Large amounts of antibiotics are used in human therapies,
farm animals and aquaculture as growth-enhancing
compounds. Antibiotics are also used increasingly in plant
biotechnology for the treatment of bacterial diseases [1-2].
As a result, bacteria are constantly subjected to selection
pressure and acquire resistance to multiple drugs. The
resistant bacteria may be transmitted to humans and cause biotic-resistant bacteria, researchers are continuously
monitoring the patterns of resistance in food from animals.
For instance, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
was isolated in 31/402 (7.7%) of retail pork samples from
four Canadian provinces [6]. In Vietnam, a study demonstrated
that 50.5% of Salmonella spp. and 83.8% of Escherichia
coli from raw food were resistant to at least one
antibiotic [7]. The outbreak of Shigella sonnei infection in
Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in 1994 incriminated
imported iceberg lettuce as the vehicle of
transmission[8]. Studies have also documented the emergence
of nalidixic acid resistant Shigella dysenteriae type 1
in coconut milk dessert [9].