Molecular Characterization and Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern of Escherichia coli Recovered from Wastewater Treatment Plants in Eastern Cape South Africa

Aboi Igwaran, Benson Chuks Iweriebor and Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh
Additional contact information
Aboi Igwaran: SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitory Center, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa
Benson Chuks Iweriebor: SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitory Center, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa
Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh: SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitory Center, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are designed to eliminate organic matter and pathogens but most WWTPs discharges antimicrobial resistance pathogens into aquatic milieu. The study aimed to examine the antibiotics resistant patterns and the presence of some resistance genes among E. coli isolates from WWTPs effluents. Water were collected from WWTPs final effluents, filtered through nitrocellulose membrane and the filter papers were placed on chromogenic agar plates, incubated for 24 h at 37 °C. Presumptive E. coli isolates (173) were obtained from the culture method. From the presumptive E. coli isolates screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 111 isolates were positive and the positive isolates were further screened for six diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes (EPEC, ETEC, EHEC, DAEC, EIEC, and EAEC) and from the pathotypes screened, nine isolates harboured daaE gene. The phenotypic susceptibility patterns of the 111 isolates to 12 antibiotics were determined by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique. All the isolates were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin. From the resistance genes screened, 31 isolates harboured mcr-1 gene and nine isolates harboured ermA gene. The study reveals that water samples recovered from the final effluents of WWTPs may likely be one of the major sources of antibiotic-resistant in Escherichia coli .

Keywords: Escherichia coli; diarrheagenic; susceptibility; WWTPs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1237/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1237/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:6:p:1237-:d:151951

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().