PLASMID BORNE RESISTANCE AMONG BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM AFRICAN SALADS (“ABACHA”)

The present study aimed at studying the bacteriological quality of African Salads and antibiotics resistance pattern of isolates before and after plasmid curing to ascertain if the resistance to multiple antimicrobials was plasmid mediated. The results showed mean Salmonella/Shigella count of the African salad samples ranged from 25× 105cfu/g to 201× 105cfu/g, Staphylococcal count ranged from 39× 103 cfu/g to 215× 105cfu/g, coliform count ranged from 27× 103 cfu/g to 215× 105 cfu/g and Listeria count ranged from 6× 103cfu/g to 113× 105cfu/g. The prevalent bacteria were Listeria sp having a 60% occurrence while Escherichia coli had a 30% occurrence. The species of bacteria isolated were identified as Listeria sp, E. coli, Klebsiella sp, Proteus sp, Salmonella sp, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella sp. All isolate were susceptible to gentamycin and ofloxacin. Resistance was observed with erythromycin (90.0%), cloaxacilin (70.2%), augmentin (60.5%), ceftazidime (34.7%) and cefuroxime (22.2%). Plasmid analysis showed that most of the isolates carried plasmids greater than 10kbp and after plasmid curing the isolates were cured of its resistance to cloxacillin and ceftazidime but some isolates still retained resistance to erythromycin (25.8%), augmentin (16.9%) and cefuroxime (19.7%).