Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic bacteria from non-clinical environment

Abstract

The presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in ambient waters had been documented. Of particular concern are not only that would expose to antibiotics during the humans and animals infections but also that they have the ability to spread the resistance genes among the environmental bacterial populations. The present study investigated the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic bacteria isolated from non-clinical environment including treated sewage effluents and water systems in Penang, Malaysia. The sensitivity test for ampicillin, amoxicillin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin were carried out by using the disk diffusion and culture based technique. About 82.13% of Escherichia coli, 78.56% of Klebsiella pneumonia, 80.94% of Enterococcus faecalis and 71.41 % of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from treated sewage effluents had multi-resistance for antibiotics including ampicillin, amoxicillin and erythromycin. E. faecalis and S. aureus isolated from surface water system showed some resistance to tetracycline and ciprofloxacin compared to E. coli and K. pneumonia. The antimicrobial resistance among bacterial population in treated sewage effluents and surface water system reflected the availability of antibiotics in these environments, even at Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICS). The increase of microbial resistance in the environment occurs as one of the eminent public health concerns and would effect on heath human in the future.