Characterization and antibiotic susceptibility of <i>Escherichia coli</i> isolated from selected internal organs of donkeys slaughtered in abattoirs in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a natural inhabitant of the gastrointestinal tract of both humans and animals. Several strains exist some are harmless while  some are pathogenic causing various fatal conditions in both humans and animals. To characterize and determine the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of  E. coli isolated from liver, spleen and intestine of donkeys slaughtered in Maraban Idah, Kaduna State, Nigeria, a total of 384 samples were collected from  128 donkeys from April to August 2018. The samples were processed using standard methods of cultural enrichment, growth on selective media,  biochemical and antibiotics susceptibility test. The overall isolation rate was 5.2% with organ distribution of 4.7%. 4.7% and 6.3% for intestine, liver and  spleen, respectively. Escherichia coli was slightly higher in the spleen than in the liver and intestine though there was no significant association (p = 0.810)  between the presence of E. coli and the organs sampled. Most of the isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin (90%), enrofloxacin (80%) and colistin (70%) while some were highly resistant to common antibiotics such as penicillin (95%), oxytetracycline (90%) and amoxycilline (75%). Most of the  isolates (75%) displayed resistance to two (2) different classes of antimicrobials with a total of 5 resistance patterns. Therefore, there is a need for education and public awareness regarding hygienic processing and consumption of offals of slaughtered donkeys. Also, further studies should be done  to ascertain the genes responsible for resistance to
antimicrobials observed in the E. coli isolates from the slaughtered donkeys.