Molecular and Antibiotic Susceptibility Profiling of Bacteria Isolated from Pre-sterilized Food Samples Used as Substrates for Outdoor Air Quality Assessment

A large proportion of human population spend significant part of their life in the outdoor environment due to activities relating to occupation and other lifestyle related events. This work was carried out fundamentally, to identify the bacterial community influencing the quality of outdoor air, vis-à-vis their antibiotic susceptibility pattern. The research was conducted at the River State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, using pre-sterilized food (yam, pawpaw, and meat) as air sampling substrates, by exposing the samples to air and studied during the wet and dry seasons. The bacterial species were identified using a culture-dependent molecular technique, and the result recorded Escherichia coli (CP040927), Klebsiella pneumoniae (MN177202), Shigella flexneri (EU009189), Salmonella typhi. (CP003278), Bacillus subtilis (EF194103) and Staphylococcus aureus (CP042650) as the predominant bacterial species. E. coli was however the most predominant species with a frequency of 34.3% and 26.7% for the dry and wet season, respectively. It was also observed from the study that the bacterial groups were higher during the wet season (35 isolates) than in the dry season (30 isolates). There was a statistical difference (p < 0.05) between the various substrates and seasons sampled. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the bacterial isolates showed that 100% of the isolates were resistant to Ceftazidime, Augmentin, Cefuroxime, Ceftriaxone and Cloxacillin, while Erythromycin, Ofloxacin, Ciprofloxacin and Meropenem were active against all the isolates (100%). Results from this study would be useful to public health professionals for deciphering the health risk associated with outdoor air quality.