Antibiograms of Gut Flora of Poultry Farms Workers Reveal Higher Resistance Levels as Compared to Non-Workers

Abstract

Introduction

Antibiotics are being used in humans and animals for treatment and control of bacterial infections. Excessive use of antibiotics in the production of poultry is a popular practice, but it poses serious health issues by transferring resistance from farm to humans via food or direct exposure.

Study Objective

The objective of this study was to carry out a comparison of the resistance and sensitivity profile of isolated isolates from sewage of toilets that were in use of workers inside the farm and from sewage of household toilets.

Methodology

In this study, a total of 320 sewage samples were collected. The antibiotic susceptibility profile was checked by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method, and the statistical analysis was carried out by MS excel. Chi-square test was performed to determine whether the antibiograms from two sample types were statistically different from each other or not.

Results

From 320 sewage samples, a total of 296 bacterial isolates were isolated among which the leading bacterium was E. coli. The proportion of resistance, ESBL production and MDR was significantly higher in bacteria isolated from sewage of toilets under use of poultry farm workers as compared to the sewage from domestic use toilets.

Conclusion

Resistance significantly increased in the bacteria isolated from toilets under use of poultry farm workers as compared to the ones isolated from control sewage samples.

Keywords:

• E. coli
• antibiotic resistance
• MDR
• sewage
• human microbiota

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval was not required as samples were not collected from individual persons but from toilet sewages under use of workers and non-workers.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Bahauddin Zakariya University for their annual research grant.

Disclosure

All authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

Annual research grant of BZU.