Abstract

Olowe O. A, Okanlawon B. M, Olowe R. A and Olayemi A. B

We screened 211 clinical samples of which total of 135 Escherichia coli isolates from different human clinical specimens comprising urine, stool, wound swabs, high vaginal swabs, ear swabs and blood obtained from patients at Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. The isolated E. coli were screened for their antibiograms and plasmid profiles. Seven antimicrobial drugs were used during the study. The prevalence of strains resistance to antimicrobials were; Tetracycline (91.6%), Ampicillin (86.7%), Sulphnamide (77.8%) and Gentamicin and Nalidixic acid which were (39.3%) and (4.1%) respectively. A total of seven antibiotic resistance profiles were obtained with over 64% of the isolates showing multi-drug resistance. Plasmids of three size ranges were detected in all of the isolates. Isolates with high multi-drug resistance profiles were found to possess multiple plasmids with large sizes in the range < 6 – 25 kb. Very large resistance levels > 85% were detected against Tetracycline, Sulphnamide, and Cotrimoxazole while Nalidixic acid showed least resistance of 4.1% among the isolates. Majority of the isolates were positive for betalactamase production when subjected to starch paper method.