Abstract

Enteric bacterial resistance to antibiotics and the emergence of resistant pathogens in the environment is a global threat to public health. In Kenya, sewage treatment plants are not designed to eliminate enteric microbes, whereas domestic, medical and other hazardous wastes are all discarded in common solid-waste dump sites. Arising from these practices, waste treatment sites in developing countries may be important selection sites for antimicrobial resistant microbes. This study, present information on the levels and patterns of antimicrobial resistance among members of the Enterobacteriaceae family, in dump sites and sewage treatment plants in Kakamega town, Kenya.   We employed Standard Microbiological Methods to recover microbes and identify enteric bacteria. Disc diffusion was used in performing the susceptibility profiling of the enteric bacteria identified. Members of Enterobacter, Citrobacter,  Klebsiella, Escherichia, Serratia, Shigella and Proteus were recovered at varied rates, with Enterobacter recording the highest occurrence at 37.14% in dumpsites, where E.coli recorded the highest occurence at  36.11 and  38.71% in wastewater and sludge, respectively. Serratia, Shigella  and Proteus  species were  the least recovery (n < 2). Amoxicillin recorded the highest level of resistance at 72%, Cephalexin at 54%, while Amikacin showed the smallest level of antibiotic resistance at 2%.  The highest multi-drug resistance was 9 out of 10 different antibiotics tested.  All antibiotics tested except for Sxt-Amc and Cip-C showed  positive correlations (p<0.05) with bacteria resistant to amoxicillin, being more resistant to other antibiotic with a percentage relative resistance frequencies ranging from 64 to 100%.  Finding show high levels of multiple antibiotic resistance commonly used as antibiotics.  The study further depicts waste treatment sites in tropics, as important sites for recruitment of antibiotic resistance traits.  

Key words: Antibiotic resistance, Enterobacteriaceae, wastewater, dumpsite.