Abstract
Five wells in Eku were assessed for total heterotrophic bacterial and coliform counts from January to December. Sixty isolates of Escherichia coli were also obtained from the well water samples throughout the study period. It was observed that, values of total heterotrophic bacterial and coliform load obtained varied with seasons although the total heterotrophic bacterial counts were significantly higher than the coliform load at all times. During the dry season, values of the total heterotrophic bacterial count ranged from 2.08 to 5.48 (log cfu/mL) while coliform counts ranged from 2.3 to 3.26 (log cfu/mL). On the other hand, total heterotrophic bacterial and coliform counts ranged from 3.34 to 7.14 (log cfu/mL) and 3.15 to 3.98 (log cfu/mL) respectively during the rainy season. Results obtained revealed that 76.6% of total Escherichia coli isolates evaluated, demonstrated multiple antibiotics resistance while 18.3% showed single antibiotics resistance. On curing, 83.3% of test Escherichia coli population lost their antibiotics resistant gene indicating that these genes resided on plasmid.
Highlights
Eku is a semi-urban settlement in Ethiope East local Government Area of Delta State, South-South region of Nigeria
Collection of samples: Well water samples were collected from January to December, using presterilized 4 L plastic container from 5 hand dug wells in Eku, a semi-urban settlement located in Ethiope East local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria
Evaluation of the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of E. coli isolates to various antibiotics: The KirbyBauer NCCLS modified disc diffusion technique described in Cheesebrough (2000), was adapted for both antibiotic sensitivity assay and interpretations of zones of inhibition
Summary
Eku is a semi-urban settlement in Ethiope East local Government Area of Delta State, South-South region of Nigeria. Majority of the people in the community depend on hand-dug well for drinking water supply as well as water for domestic purposes. The provision of an adequate supply of safe drinking water was one of the eight primary health care identified by the International conference on primary health care in 1978 (Muazu et al, 2012). Unsafe drinking water is a global health threat, placing persons at risk of diarrhea and a host of other water -borne diseases. Having noticed that the domestic water supply for most of the people in Eku were neither well protected nor adequately treated, this study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of Escherichia coli in these wells and to ascertain if such strains possessed plasmid borne antibiotic resistant genes
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