Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of Haemolysins in relation to Antibiotic Resistance Profile among Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC)

This study was conducted to detect the prevalence of haemolysis, its hly virulence genes and the antimicrobial resistance profile of Escherichia coli strains implicated in Urinary tract infections (UPEC) in Palakkad, India. From 280 urine samples 200 E. coli strains were isolated and identified. The antimicrobial resistances of E. coli isolates were characterized using Disk Diffusion method. Haemolysis was checked using 5% sheep Blood agar and finally PCR was carried out for strains showing haemolysis using hly D primer. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed, 90.5%, 52.0%, 47.5%, 19.0%, 38.5%, 24.7%, 36% and 30% resistance rate to ampicillin, cefuroxime, ciprofloaxacin, ceftazidime, co-trimoxazole, gentamicin, nalidixic-acid, norfloxacin and nitrofurantion respectively. Haemolysis in sheep blood agar was observed in 55 (27.5%) of the isolates. hlyD genes were seen among 10 UPEC strains. The data suggest a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance in UPEC strains.