Identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Enterobacteriaceae Isolated from Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus)

M.O Taiwo,C.O Ojesola,A.C Anthony,O.T Oyedemi,B.A Adelabu,A.A Shofunde

doi:10.4314/jasem.v25i10.4

Abstract

Diseases and infections which are naturally transmitted between animals and humans are of major concern worldwide. Geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus) are known to be potential reservoirs of many zoonotic enteropathogens. This study was designed to isolate, identify, and evaluate the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Enterobacteriaceae from Geckos. Using standard microbiological procedures, bacteria were isolated from 138 intestinal samples of Hemidactylus frenatus collected from different sampling sites. A total of 20 bacterial species of 9 different genera were identified using automated Colorimetry VITEK 2 system. The percentage occurrences were Enterobacter aerogenes (35%), Proteus mirabilis (15%), Salmonella ser paratyphi B (10%), Serratia fonticola (10%), Enterobacter kobei (10%), Raoultella ornithinolytica (5%), Sphingomonas paucimobilis (5%), Acinetobacter baumannii, (5%) and Burkholderia cepacia (5%). Results obtained from the antibiotic susceptibility pattern according to CLSI guidelines revealed that all the 20 bacterial species have varying rate of resistance with 20 (100%) showing resistance to Ciprofloxacin (CPX), 20 (100%) Pefloxacin (PEF), 19 (95%), Augmentin (AU), 11 (55%) Cotrimoxazole (CXT), 10 (50%) Streptomycin (S), 9 (45%) Chloramphenicol (CH), 6 (30%) Gentamycin (CN), 3 (15%) Ofloxacin (OFX). This study revealed that Enterobacteriaceae in the intestine of Geckos are multidrug resistant and are potentially harmful when in contact directly or indirectly with humans. It becomes important to educate people on the importance of personal hygiene in order to eradicate Geckos from our environment.

Highlights

Bacteria are widespread in the environment and have evolved a variety of interactions with animals including those inhabited in human dwellings (Feldhaar, 2011)
The Total Bacterial Counts (TBC) obtained from different samples grown on Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB) and MacConkey agar respectively were shown in table 1
On EMB medium, bacteria count from MH (2.25x102) was significantly higher than those obtained from AH (2.10 x102), which was significantly higher than AUD (2.04 x102)

Summary

Introduction

Bacteria are widespread in the environment and have evolved a variety of interactions with animals including those inhabited in human dwellings (Feldhaar, 2011). Few researchers who have studied Geckos as a reservoir of pathogens have reported zoonotic enteropathogens such as Edwardsiella tarda, Citrobacter freundii, Klebsiella pneumonia, Clostridium Intermedius, Erwinia herbicola, Enterobacter cloacae (Singh et al, 2013, Nwachukwu et al, 2014;), Shigella sonnei, Enterobacter species, Serratia marcescens, Proteus spp., Escherichia coli including non-typhoidal salmonellae (Callaway et al, 2011; Gwen and Saleha, 2013; Arnafia et al, 2016) These microorganisms are Gram-negative bacterium of the Enterobacteriaceae family which have been categorized as the major global causes of diarrheal, ulcerative stomatitis, pneumonia, cutaneous lesions, septicemias, caseated abscesses, and are associated with consumption of contaminated food products of animal origin (WHO, 2018; Bjelland et al, 2020). This study aimed to isolate, characterize and evaluate the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Enterobacteriaceae from the intestinal tract of Geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus)

Objectives

Methods

Results