Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance and Distribution of Virulence Factors in the Shiga Toxigenic Escherichia coli Recovered from Hospital Food

background: regarding the presence of immunosuppressed patients in hospitals, hospital food must have a boost safety. escherichia coli o157 is one of the prevalent causes of food-related poisoning. objectives: the current examination was done to assess the distribution of virulence factors and phenotypic analysis of antibiotic resistance of e. coli o157 bacteria recovered from hospital food. methods: from april to august 2016, 200 hospital food samples were obtained and directly transported to the laboratory. escherichia coli o157positive bacteria were analyzed by disk diffusion and polymerase chain reaction (pcr). results: nine out of 200 (4.50%) samples harbored e. coli o157. distribution of e. coli o157 in soup and gavage samples were 3% and 6%, respectively. stx1 (100%), eaea (100%), and ehlya (100%) were the most frequently detected virulence genes. escherichia coli o157 bacteria exhibited maximum prevalence of antibiotic resistance against tetracycline (100%), gentamycin (100%), ampicillin (100%), mezlocillin (50%), enrofloxacin (50%), and trimethoprim (50%). distribution of resistance of e. coli o157 bacteria against more than six antibiotic agents was 11.11%. conclusions: gavage and soup samples may be sources of virulent and resistant e. coli o157. high presence of e. coli o157, simultaneous presence of multiple virulence genes, and resistance against animalbased antibiotics presented inadequacy of cooking time and temperature in processing of hospital foods.