Resistance pattern of fecal escherichia coli in selected broiler farms of eastern hararghe zone, ethiopia.

ABSTRACT

A study was conducted to determine the pattern of antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli isolated from Cloacal swab of broiler chickens in selected farms of Eastern Harrarge zone of Ethiopia. Isolation and identification of Escherichia coli were done by using enrichment media, selective media, and biochemical tests. 65 selected isolates were subjected to 9 antimicrobial agents to determine their resistance by the disk diffusion method. Accordingly, the resistance of E.coli was tetracycline (90%), streptomycin (78%), ampicillin (60%), amoxicillin (56%), erythromycin (45%), ciprofloxacin (38%), and chloramphenicol (15%). None of the isolates showed resistance to gentamicin. Sensitivity was observed in case of 80%, 77%, 44%, 32%, 26%, 20%, 20%, 15%, and 10% of the isolates for chloramphenicol, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin, ampicillin, streptomycin, erythromycin, and tetracycline, respectively. Intermediate resistance/susceptibility was recorded for 5-35% of the isolates. 92.3% of the isolates tested showed multidrug resistance for 2 or more antimicrobials and the highest levels (18.5%) of multidrug-resistant E. coli were observed for 3 antimicrobials accounting 7.7% for tetracycline-ampicillin-streptomycin and 10.8% for tetracycline-ampicillin-amoxicillin. This study showed resistance against the antibiotics that are commonly used in poultry. Furthermore, it was concluded that gentamicin, chloramphenicole and ciproflaxin will be the first drugs of choice to resist infections caused by E. coli in chicken in Ethiopia. These findings confirm significant increase in the incidence of antimicrobial resistance in the E. coli isolates which is most probably due to increased use of antibiotics as feed additives for growth promotion and prevention of diseases and use of inappropriate antibiotics for treatment of diseases. Hence, excess or abusive use of antimicrobials should be guarded through judicious application of antimicrobials.