One of the important problems in poultry production is bacterial infections and increasing resistance to antibiotics. The increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a major challenge for physicians and veterinarians and considerably limits treatment options. This study was undertaken in order to assess the prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella spp. strains isolated from turkeys sampled from 2019 to 2022 in Poland. The material for study consisted of clinical samples taken during routine monitoring and microbiological identification testing at commercial poultry farms. From all 507 isolates of Klebsiella, 95% were identified by MALDI-TOF (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption - Ionisation-Time of Flight) as Klebsiella pneumonia, 2% were Klebsiella oxytoca, 2% Klebsiella variicola, or unidentified (1%). All isolated Klebsiella strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility by disk diffusion. The results of our study indicated that colistin, neomycin, florfenicol and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid were the most effective against the Klebsiella spp. isolated from turkeys. In addition, the results show a decrease in the number of multi-resistant Klebsiella spp. strains between 2019 and 2021.
Keywords: Klebsiella spp.; antimicrobial resistance; turkeys.