Abstract

Information on the resistance profiles of clinical and non clinical human bacteria isolates in the developing countries can serve as important means of understanding the human pathogens drug resistance interactions in the zone. Escherichia coliisolated from five geopolitical zones of Nigeria were screened for anti-microbial resistance profile against 14 antibiotics using the disc diffusion method. Overall, the 89 isolates tested were 94.4% that showed resistance to Ampicillin; 85.5% to Cotrimoxazole, 92.1% to Cephalothin; 78.7% to Streptomycin, 70.8% to Nitrofurantoin; 79.8 to Tetracycline; 67.4% to Chloramphenicol; 74.2% to Amoxicillin clavulanic acid; 61.8 to Cefpirome; 52.8% to Cefpodoxime; 46.1% to Cefotaxine; 46.1% to Ceftriaxone; 31.5% to Cefoxitin; 38.2% to Nalidixic acid and 24.7% to Gentamycin. These isolates showed a total of 42 different antibiotics resistance profiles, with all the isolates showing resistance to at least four or more of the drugs tested. Statistical analysis showed there was no statistical difference in the proportion of isolates that were resistant to ≥1 antibiotic for human clinical (84.6%) and non-clinical (91.7%) isolates. This result indicates that antimicrobial use in humans has driven the emergence of multi-drug resistant clones in developing countries such as Nigeria that has resulted in an increasingly high prevalence of multiple resistance.

Key words: Escherichia coli, resistance profiles, antibiotics, isolates.