Antibiotic-resistant commensal Escherichia coli in faecal droplets from bats and poultry in Nigeria

The prevalence of antibiotic resistance and plasmid carriage among commensal faecal Escherichia coli isolates of bats, broilers and free-range chickens in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria was studied. A total of 125 E. coli isolates were recovered from the fresh faecal samples of bats, broilers and free-range chickens on eosin methylene blue agar plates and characterised using standard biochemical tests. The susceptibility of the isolates to antibiotics was performed using the disk diffusion method. All isolates developed resistance to antibiotics to varying degrees; resistance to augumentin, amoxicillin and tetracycline was significantly higher (p<0.05), compared to the other antibiotics. The lowest resistance was recorded with ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin in bats and free-range isolates. In general, resistance was higher (p<0.05) in broilers than in free-range isolates, but was comparable in bat isolates (p>0.05) with the exception of ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin gentamicin and ofloxacin. A total of 90% of the bat isolates developed multiple antibiotic resistance with 28 multiple antibiotic resistance patterns. The free-range chicken and broiler isolates displayed 10 and 38 multiple antibiotic resistance patterns, respectively. Resistance was mostly plasmid-mediated with molecular weights ranging between 0.91 kb and 40.42 kb. Antibiotic resistance and plasmid carriage among the commensal E. coli isolates studied was relatively high and may be implicated in zoonotic infections.