Abstract

Objective: To characterize multiple antibiotic resistance profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from aquaculture and abattoir environments. Methods: Wastewater samples were obtained from the abattoir and aquaculture environments between May 2016 and July 2016 and analysed using standard phenotypic, biochemical and PCR-based methods. Results: The mean pseudomonads count ranged from (4 × 102 ± 1.01) to (2 × 104 ± 0.10) colony-forming unit/mL in the aquaculture environment and (3 × 103 ± 0.00) to (1 × 105 ± 1.00) colony-forming unit/mL in the abattoir environment. A total of 96 isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa confirmed by PCR were thereafter selected from both aquaculture and abattoir environments and further characterized for their antimicrobial susceptibility profile by adopting the disc diffusion method. High level of resistance was observed against the aminoglycosides [gentamycin 64/96 (66.67%) and kanamycin 52/96 (54.17%)], monobactams [aztreonam 76/96 (79.17%)], carbapenems [meropenem 52/96 (54.17%)], tetracyclines [tetracycline 72/96 (75.00%)] and cephems [ceftazidime 72/96 (75.00%) and cefuroxime 48/96 (50.00%)]. Multiple antibiotic resistant index of the respective isolates ranged from 0.4 to 0.8 while multidrug resistant profile of the isolates revealed that 28 of the respective isolates were resistant to ceftazidime, cefuroxime, gentamycin, kanamycin, aztreonam which belongs to cephems, aminoglycosides and monobactam class of antimicrobials. Conclusions: Findings from the present study therefore underscores the need for effective monitoring of the abattoir and aquaculture environments as they could be the significant source for spreading antibiotic resistant bacteria within the environment.

Authors and Affiliations