Abstract

Multi-drug resistant bacteria were isolated from fresh fish and fish handlers using conventional methods of bacterial isolation such as colonial morphology, gram staining and biochemical tests. The bacteria isolated include Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus sp, E. coli, Klebsiella sp, Proteus sp. and Brucella sp. These bacterial isolates were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing using disc diffusion technique against ten antimicrobial agents. S. aureus isolates showed resistance to gentamycin, tetracycline, oxacillin, ciprofloxacin and cefoxitin while Streptococcus sp were resistant to tetracycline, chloramphenicol and clindamycin. All the bacterial isolates were resistant to tetracycline while susceptible to cefoxitin, cephazolin, erythromycin and clindamycin. The multi drug resistance pattern of Staphylococcus aureus isolates showed resistance to three and more antimicrobial agents while none was resistant to 10 antimicrobial agents. All other isolates were resistant to four and more different antimicrobial agents while no isolates was resistant to one and ten antimicrobial agents. Therefore the continuous monitoring and surveillance of multi-drug resistant bacteria in fish and fish handlers will not only reduce the risk of disease to the fishes but public health hazard to fish handlers and consumers in general.

Keywords:

Bacteria, fish, fish handlers, Maiduguri, multi-drug resistance, Nigeria,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.