Evaluation of Antibiotic Resistant Gene in Abattoir Environment

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous gram-negative pathogen with susceptibility to cause opportunistic infections in humans. Among the total of 75 isolated presumptive Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by cultural and morphology characteristic, 55 were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa by the specie-specific primer employing PCR assay which was more sensitive for confirmation of the isolates. Fifty-five Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were screened using PCR for the presence of integrons and associated resistance gene cassette. Thirty-four isolates harbored class 1 integrons (61.8%), of which 27 isolates (79.4%) carried gene cassettes. PCR was performed targeting the presence of these genes:- bla_OXA 11(32.4%); bla_IMP 5(14.7%); bla_AMPC 5(14.7%); bla_TEM 4(11.8%); and TetC 2(5.8%). Some of these genes were only recently described from clinical isolates, demonstrating genetic exchange between clinical and environmental Pseudomonas aeruginosa stains. Multiresistance was observed in the isolates, revealing strong correlation between integron presence and multi-resistance. These results demonstrate that abattoir milieu is potential reservoirs of various antibiotics resistance genes, thus constituting a serious health risk to the communities dependent on the receiving water bodies.

Keywords: Abattoir, Class 1 integron, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Multi-resistance, Gene cassette