PREVALENCE OF MULTIDRUG RESISTANT LIVESTOCK ASSOCIATED STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS ISOLATED FROM NASAL PASSAGE OF HEALTHY CATTLE IN KARA MARKET OGUN STATE NIGERIA

PREVALENCE OF MULTIDRUG RESISTANT LIVESTOCK ASSOCIATED STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS ISOLATED FROM NASAL PASSAGE OF HEALTHY CATTLE IN KARA MARKET OGUN STATE NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Staphylococcus aureus, ‘one of the most adaptable and virulent pathogens in modern times’ is a facultative anaerobic Gram-positive coccal bacterium able to infect any tissue of the human body to cause ailments ranging from minor skin infections to life-threatening diseases. The bacterium is also known to colonize and infect both pets and livestock, including dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, cattle and pigs to result in zoonosis. A major concern is the prevalence of irrepressible multidrug resistant S. aureus in pets and livestock, as these may serve as reservoirs for human colonization and compound the problem of emergence and/or re-emergence of global diseases. This project was designed to assess the prevalence of multidrug resistant livestock associated S. aureus isolated from nasal passage of healthy cattle in Kara Market, Ogun state, Nigeria.

A total of 500 nasal samples were collected from healthy adult cattle (250 from male and 250 from female cattle) but 409 S. aureus isolates were identified(218 from male and 191 from female cattle) by Gram staining and specific biochemical tests.

The antibiogram of the S. aureus isolates revealed that all the isolates exhibited multidrug resistance (8/12) to ceftriaxone, gentamicin, cotrimoxazole, erythromycin, amoxicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol and ampicillin, fairly resistant(3/12) to quinolones but weakly resistant (1/12) to vancomycin. High minimum inhibitory concentration greater than 128 μg/ml was exhibited by 63.3% of the isolates against flucloxacillin (methicillin) but 28% of the isolates were equally resistant (>128 μg/ml) to vancomycin (glycosidic). The in-vitro combination effect of flucloxacillin and ampicillin on the isolates resulted in 86.3% additive to imply the unsuitability of the combination to effectively control staphylococcal infections.

Vancomycin was observed to be bactericidal to livestock associated multidrug and/or methicillin resistant S. aureus in this study. The quinolones antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin and ofloxacin) are fairly effective (known to be relatively non-toxic) may be used to complement and/or substitute toxic antibiotics in curtailing ailment resulting from multidrug resistant S. aureus.

 Keywords: S. aureus, Antibiotics, Cattle, Resistance, Multidrug.