| Summary: | Fresh vegetables play a significant role in the human diet. However, ready-to-eat (RTE) vegetables have been associated with increasing foodborne outbreaks including <i>L. monocytogenes</i>, which is a common human pathogen associated with foodborne infections resulting in listeriosis. This study aims to assess the resistance of vegetable-borne <i>L. monocytogenes</i> to antibiotics. <i>L. monocytogenes</i> was isolated and molecularly characterized using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from 17 RTE vegetable samples. The confirmed <i>L. monocytogenes</i> was further assessed for phenotypic and genotypic antibiotic resistance using the disc diffusion test and PCR primers targeting six antibiotic classes and thirty-one related antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), respectively. The results revealed that <i>Listeria</i> counts ranged from 1.60 to 3.44 log<sub>10</sub> CFU/g in the samples. The isolates exhibited high resistance against penicillin G, erythromycin, vancomycin, tetracycline, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and nitrofurantoin among the 108 isolates tested. A total of 71 multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) phenotypes were observed in the isolates, which ranged from resistance to 3 to 13 antibiotics. The MAR index was ˃0.2 in 97% of the isolates. Some of the highly detected ARG subtypes included <i>SulI</i> (100%), TEM (76.9%), <i>tetA</i> (59%), and <i>tetM</i> (54.7%). The findings show a high occurrence of multidrug-resistant <i>L. monocytogenes</i> and clinical ARGs in fresh vegetables, which constitutes an immediate danger for the health security of the public.
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