Plasmid Profiling of Antibiotic Resistant Organisms Isolated From Hospital Effluents Discharged Into Nworie River Imo State

Abstract

The emergence of multiple antibiotics resistant in bacteria and the indiscriminate use of antibiotics contribute to the dissemination of resistant pathogen in the environment. Hospital effluents are potential sources of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which if released into the rivers leads to the contamination of the water by the resistant strains which are potential threat to human health as they might have direct access to man or transported from sea animals to man through food. Plasmids are major mechanism for the spread of antibiotic resistant gene in bacteria population. Plasmid profiling is one of the methods used to determine and characterize antibiotic resistance traits in bacteria. In this study, Samples were collected using sterile sample bottles at three different locations of Nworie River (Two Federal Medical Center and the third behind Umezuruike hospital) in Imo State. A total of eighteen isolates were screened for antibiotic susceptibility. The isolates were tested against ten (10) different antibiotics using the disc diffusion method. Eight (8) isolates were found to be resistant to at least five antibiotics. While the plasmid DNA were extracted using the TENS extraction method and separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Four of the resistant strains had plasmid DNA.