A newly developed Escherichia coli isolate panel from a cross section of U.S. animal production systems reveals geographic and commodity-based differences in antibiotic resistance gene carriage.

•Agricultural Escherichia coli panel (AgEC) generated from the four major animal production commodities of the United States.•The 300 isolates are highly diverse, clustering into 71 PFGE groups.•Tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance PCR gene screening identified 131 tet and 41 sul harboring isolates.•This isolate panel is a publicly available resource for the agricultural community.