Authors : N. ALHaj , N.S. Mariana , A.R. Raha and Z. Ishak
Abstract: Antimicrobial agent resistance has been recognized as an emergingworldwide problem in both human and animals, antimicrobial agent use is considered the most important factorfor the emergence, selection and dissemination of antimicrobialagent-resistant bacteria, intrinsically either acquires the resistance gene from other bacterial environment or development of pumping out mechanism. The aim of this study was to generate baseline dataon the prevalence of antimicrobial resistancein Escherichia coli isolates from different sources. Seventy E. coliisolates from humans and environments were tested for susceptibility to 10 antimicrobialagents by diffusion method. Resistance was found in 61.2 % of the isolates. The most prevalent resistanceswere to kanamycin and tetracycline (81.4%),followed by chloramphenicol (75.7%) and gentamicin,(74.3%). The low prevalent were to cefetoxin (44.3%), norofluoxacin (27.1%) and ciprofluoxacin (24.3%). This study showed the distribution of antimicrobial agent resistancein E. coli isolates from a variety of sources and analysisof such patterns of resistance may prove to be useful beyondsimple description. Regarding to the concern of water quality and environmentalcontamination by human and agricultural waster have increased,it has become increasingly important to develop low-cost screeningtools that can be used to identify the most probable sourceof contamination.
N. ALHaj , N.S. Mariana , A.R. Raha and Z. Ishak , 2007. Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance among Escherichia coli from Different Sources in Malaysia. Research Journal of Pharmacology, 1: 44-49.