Risk factors for antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli isolates from poultry in Haryana

Abstract

Colibacillosis is a disease of severe economic significance to all poultry producers worldwide, characterized by a diverse array of lesions. Due to enormous exploitation of antibiotics in broilers, an increased number of resistant bacterial strains have developed in recent years. 106 E. coli strains were collected from broilers suffering from colibacillosis. The resistance to different classes of antimicrobials was determined. The presence of integrons was determined by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). All the statistical analyses were carried out using STATA™. All the isolates were multidrug resistance (MDR), i.e. resistant to at least one agent in three or more antimicrobial categories. 37 (34.90%) isolates were found positive for Class 1 integrons. There was significant difference in carriage of integrons in different phylogentic groups, p=0.001, however, there was no difference among different serotypes for carriage of integrons. Significant difference was observed for resistance towards co-trimoxazole (p=0.002), piperacillin (p=0.034) and ciprofloxacin (p=0.046) in Class 1 integron carrying isolates and Class 1 integron negative isolates. Significant difference was observed for resistance towards ceftriaxone (p=0.004) and cefotaxime (p=0.027) in relation to phylogenetic groups. Also, significant difference was observed among different serotypes for resistance towards co-trimoxazole (p=0.001), gentamicin (p=0.005) and kanamycin (p=0.041).