Abstract

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Aeromonas has been implicated as the most common bacterial disease in farm animals. In Ebonyi State, Nigeria, these infections and their adverse effects on public health have not been well investigated. The study detects the presence of Aeromonas species from Piggery Farms and determines the antibiotic resistance profile of the isolates. A total of 50 fresh Pig feacal samples were randomly collected from 25 different piggery farms in various parts of State. Bacterial detection was conducted using cultural methods and biochemical analysis. Susceptibility of the Aeromonas spp to antimicrobials was investigated using the Kirby−Bauer disk diffusion method. The study revealed that the microbial load ranges from 5.8±2.2x106 CFU/mL to 22.0±9.6x106 CFU/mL across the locations. The isolates showed 100% resistance to amoxicillin and cefuroxime followed by cefotaxine (90%), tobramycin (80%), ceftazidine (70%), meropenem (60%), The isolates are more susceptible to imipenem (90%), followed by cefepime (60%). All the isolates were resistant to at least three classes of antimicrobials, and had a multiple antibiotic resistance index score between 0.5 and 0.9. The study demonstrated that pig farms are potential public health threat as they are found to be contaminated with high bacterial load of Aeromonas spp which exhibited resistance to some of the life-saving antibiotics. The study advocates good management practices and successful control approaches to protect consumers and to minimize the risk of drug resistance.

Keywords: Keywords: Antibiotics, Susceptibility, Aeromonas spp, Piggery Farms