Abstract
Greenish pigment producing Pseudomonas species were isolated from water samples using nutrient agar supplemented with 50 μg.ml-1 chloramphenicol. Broth cultures of three of the Pseudomonas isolates were prepared for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination by adjusting their turbidity using sterile normal saline to match the turbidity of McFarland standard No. 1 which is regarded to have a cell density of about 3 × 108 cfu/ml. The MIC of ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, and tetracycline against the three isolates was determined using the agar dilution method. The concentrations of the antibiotics used are 0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 20.0, 40.0, 80.0, 160.0, 320.0, and 640.0 μg/ml. The results showed that the MIC of ciprofloxacin against the Pseudomonas isolates ranged from 5 – 640 μg/ml; the MIC of tetracycline against the isolates ranged from 5 – 640 μg/ml; and the MIC of erythromycin against the isolates ranged from 40 - 80 μg/ml. It is thus concluded that multidrug resistant species of Pseudomonas can be generated as a result of using chloramphenicol for the isolation of Pseudomonas, and that erythromycin can be effective in treating infections caused by Pseudomonas species that are resistant to ciprofloxacin and tetracycline.
Highlights
Cultures of Pseudomonas species are often required for research, environmental and industrial application
The samples were taken to the Microbiology laboratory of the Rivers State University, and analyzed for total heterotrophic bacterial count using nutrient agar (Titan Biotech Ltd., India), and greenish pigment producing Pseudomonas species using nutrient agar supplemented with 50 μg.ml-1 chloramphenicol
For the time been, it has been shown in this work that erythromycin is effective against Pseudomonas species that are resistant to ciprofloxacin and tetracycline
Summary
Cultures of Pseudomonas species are often required for research, environmental and industrial application This is due to their ability to metabolize and transform several organic compounds, and their ability to produce biosurfactants and other organic molecules [1,2,3]. Isolation of Pseudomonas species from environmental media using nutrient agar supplemented with chloramphenicol has been suggested by Peekate and Abu [4]. Their suggestion was based on the observation that certain species of Pseudomonas produces greenish pigment during growth in the presence of chloramphenicol. As a result of not been killed, some bacterial pathogens develop resistance to the antibiotic, especially when the antibiotic is applied at sub-inhibitory concentrations
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