Network Analysis of Antimicrobial MIC Profiles Reveals Extensive Covariation in Chicken-Associated Escherichia coli from Large-Scale Breeding Flocks in Central Hungary

Background

The surveillance of non-clinical bacteria from food-producing animals can reveal antimicrobial selection patterns without conditioning sampling on clinical disease, but categorical resistance estimates are difficult to compare when organism-specific breakpoints are incomplete. We aimed to characterize antimicrobial MIC distributions in chicken-associated Staphylococcus spp., Enterococcus spp., and Escherichia coli from Central Hungary and to determine whether E. coli MIC profiles formed structured covariance networks.