Abstract

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Plasmid is known to play a very vital role in the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria in veterinary and human health. A total of 90 isolates of Escherichia coli out of 100 swab samples were recovered from cloacal swabs of swine (neonate, piglet and adults). All the isolates were morphologically and biochemically identified, while 20 of the representative isolates were confirmed using molecular-studies, and used for plasmid profile analysis. Twelve antibiotics were used for the study. All the isolates were resistant to amoxicillin (100%). Resistance to other antibiotics were as follows; Oxacillin (96%), Erythromycine (76%) and Streptomycin (68%). The demonstration of multi-drug phenotype cuts across the various age range of the swine. The bacteria isolates were sensitive to Gentamycin (100%), Ciprofloxamine (92%), Ceftazidine (92%) and Oxfloxacin (88%). There was multidrug resistance of E. coli (22.4%) with the predominant resistance patterns being CIP-OXF-CET-CEZ-GEN CXM. There was Plasmid cure of all the bacteria isolates, an indication that resistance was chromosomally mediated. The study revealed that there were multi-drug resistant strains of E. coli in the studied Swine. Molecular detection of E. coli showed bands with amplicon size of 160 bp. The absence of visible bands for the plasmids despite the fact that the isolates were resistance to antibiotics, implies that chromosomal genes may be responsible for conferring resistance to antibiotics. From the study, swine may serve as a reservoir for E. coli strains carrying antimicrobial resistant genes.

Keywords: Plasmid profile, Molecular detection, Multi-drug resistance, Escherichia coli, Swine.