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Antibiotic resistance
profile of Escherichia coli from clinically healthy
pigs and their commercial farm environments
Chikwendu C. I.*, Nwabueze R. N.
and Anyanwu B. N.
Department of Microbiology, School of Science, Federal
University of Technology, P. M. B. 1526 Owerri, Imo State,
Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
chinwechikwendu@yahoo.com.
Accepted 5 February, 2008
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The study
was conducted to determine the antibiotic resistance profile
of Escherichia coli isolated from clinically healthy
pigs and their commercial farm environments. Differential
and selective media were used to isolate a total of 142
E. coli strains from 202 samples. These were tested
against 16 antibiotics using the disc diffusion method. The
isolates showed high resistance rates to Cefuroxime (89.4%),
Nitrofurantoin (89.4%), Tetracycline (74.6%), Ceftazidime
(73.9%), Cefotaxime (72.5%) and Cephalexin (53.5%). Rates of
resistance to Septrin and Chloramphenicol were moderate
(12.7 to 39.4%), while low rates were recorded for
Gentamycin (0.09%), Ciprofloxacine (0.08%), Perfloxacine
(0.05%), Augumentine (0.06%), Nalidixic acid (0.07%),
Streptomycin (0.05%) and Ofloxacine (0.05%). A total of 78
resistance patterns were identified. The high rates of
resistance, as well as the large number of resistant
patterns recorded in the absence of the use of antibiotics
for growth promotion or as prophylactics suggested that
antibiotics are not the only selective factors for
antibiotic resistance.
Key
words:
Escherichia coli, antibiotics, resistance, clinically
healthy, prophylaxis. |
