Food-borne bacterial infections have worldwide importance, and a great variety of antibiotic resistance mechanisms, mainly of the chromosome type, have rapidly developed. Antimicrobial resistance was determined in this study in terms of the presence of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), plasmid AmpC β-lactamases (pAmpC), and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) from 155 Escherichia coli isolates obtained from bovine carcasses from two states in Mexico (states of Mexico and Jalisco). Isolates were challenged with β-lactam antimicrobials (ampicillin, ceftazidime, and cefotaxime) and quinolones (nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin). The presence of the bla TEM, bla SHV, bla CTX-M, bla OXA , bla CMY, bla MOX, bla LAT, bla BIL, qnrA, qnrB, qnrS, aac(6')-Ib-cr, and qepA genes was examined by PCR. Clonal relationship was determined using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The highest resistance was found to be to nalidixic acid (64 %), followed by ampicillin (32 %), ciprofloxacin (10 %), and ceftazidime and cefotaxime (both 1.3 %). bla CMY (n = 1), bla TEM (n = 24), qnrB (n = 9), and qnrS (n = 7) genes were detected. PFGE analysis showed that the majority of isolates had a different genotypic profile. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the presence of the qnrB, qnrS, and bla CMY genes in E. coli isolated from bovine meat in Mexico.