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Genetic diversity and
in vitro antibiotic susceptibility profile of
Salmonella species isolated from domestic water and
wastewater sources in the Eastern Cape Province of South
Africa
N. C. Mafu*, G. Pironcheva and A. I. Okoh
Applied and
Environmental Microbiology Research Group, Department of
Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare,
Alice 5700, South Africa.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
nmafu@ufh.ac.za
Accepted
30 January, 2009 |
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We assessed the genetic diversity of forty Salmonella
isolates obtained from selected domestic water and waste
water sources in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
using DNA fingerprinting and antibiotic susceptibility
profile as test indices. Restriction digests and SDS/PAGE as
well as the DNA dendograms of the isolates revealed that
most of these strains show a high percentage of genetic
similarity, and suggests that these methods are valuable
tools for evaluating the relatedness of Salmonella
species. Also, of the seven antibiotics and sulfonamides
tested against the Salmonella species, five namely,
neomycin, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, streptomycin and
cotriomoxazole were significantly inhibitory, while the
bacteria showed considerable resistance to doxycycline and
sulfomethoxazole.
Key
words:
Genetic diversity, Salmonella, water, antibiotic
susceptibility. |