Abstract
Antimicrobial use in agriculture, livestock and human health has increased over the years leading to the increase in antimicrobial resistance that can also find its way to the aquatic environment. Rivers can act as reservoirs of highly resistant strains and facilitate the dissemination of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains to animals and humans using water. A total of 318 water samples were collected from six different sampling points along Athi River and E. coli isolates were subjected to Kirby-Bauer diffusion method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The total mean coliform count of the sampled sites was 2.7 × 104 (cfu/mL). E. coli isolates were most resistant to ampicillin (63.8%) and most susceptible to gentamicin (99.4%). MDR strains (resistance to ≥3 classes of antibiotics) accounted for 65.4% of all the isolates. The site recorded to have human industrial and agricultural zone activities had strains that were significantly more resistant to ampicillin, cefoxitin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (P ≤ 0.05) than isolates from the section of the river traversing virgin land and land with minimum human activities. This study indicates that E. coli strains isolated from Athi River were highly MDR and most resistant to some antimicrobial classes (ampicillin and cefoxitin) which constitute a potential risk to human and animal health.
Highlights
Rise in resistance to multiple drugs among E. coli is a major concern both in developed and developing countries
We evaluated contamination levels at multiple sampling sites and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles among E. coli strains obtained from Athi River water
The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine antimicrobial susceptibility profiles among E. coli isolated from different sections of this river
Summary
Rise in resistance to multiple drugs among E. coli is a major concern both in developed and developing countries. Contamination of water sources as a result of pollution with faecal bacteria has potential to spread highly resistant strains [2]-[5]. E. coli is an important indicator organism for faecal pollution in environmental waters and has been useful in monitoring antimicrobial resistance patterns in Gram-negative bacteria. We evaluated contamination levels at multiple sampling sites and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles among E. coli strains obtained from Athi River water. Little is known about the level of microbial contamination and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns from this river using E. coli as indicator organism. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine antimicrobial susceptibility profiles among E. coli isolated from different sections of this river
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