Pathogenic Escherichia coli Strains Recovered from Selected Aquatic Resources in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and Its Significance to Public Health

Kingsley Ehi Ebomah, Martins Ajibade Adefisoye and Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh
Additional contact information
Kingsley Ehi Ebomah: SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitoring Centre, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa
Martins Ajibade Adefisoye: SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitoring Centre, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa
Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh: SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitoring Centre, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-10

Abstract: The prevalence of pathogenic microorganisms, as well as the proliferation of antimicrobial resistance, pose a significant threat to public health. However, the magnitude of the impact of aquatic environs concerning the advent and propagation of resistance genes remains vague. Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) are widespread and encompass a variety of strains, ranging from non-pathogenic to highly pathogenic. This study reports on the incidence and antibiotic susceptibility profiles of E. coli isolates recovered from the Nahoon beach and its canal waters in South Africa. A total of 73 out of 107 (68.2%) Polymerase chain reaction confirmed E. coli isolates were found to be affirmative for at least one virulence factor. These comprised of enteropathogenic E. coli 11 (10.3%), enteroinvasive E. coli 14 (13.1%), and neonatal meningitis E. coli 48 (44.9%). The phenotypic antibiogram profiles of the confirmed isolates revealed that all 73 (100%) were resistant to ampicillin, whereas 67 (91.8%) of the pathotypes were resistant to amikacin, gentamicin, and ceftazidime. About 61 (83.6%) and 51 (69.9%) were resistant to tetracycline and ciprofloxacin, respectively, and about 21.9% (16) demonstrated multiple instances of antibiotic resistance, with 100% exhibiting resistance to eight antibiotics. The conclusion from our findings is that the Nahoon beach and its canal waters are reservoirs of potentially virulent and antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains, which thus constitute a potent public health risk.

Keywords: E. coli; surface water; antibiotic-resistance gene; MARI; MARP; multidrug resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1506/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1506/ (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:7:p:1506-:d:158342

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 ().