| dc.description.abstract | Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global crisis, as new forms of resistance emerge and are
spreading quickly between continents. The problem of AMR is vast in developing countries,
where the burden of infectious diseases is enormous. E. coli is commensal organism of the
mammalian gut and is also a reservoir of AMR genes. Through horizontal gene transfer, E.
coli exchanges genetic material especially of resistant genes making it a useful indicator of
AMR. Additionally, it’s found everywhere which makes its monitoring especially in food
producing animals possible.(Fearnley, 2022) Several pathogenic strains of E. coli are known
to be resistant to a number of antibiotics. However, there is limited data on antimicrobial
profiles of Escherichia coli isolates from Ugandan livestock and farmers. We, therefore,
conducted this cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of E. coli AMR among
humans, cattle and the associated predisposing factors in agro-pastoral farming systems of
Kamuli and Isingiro districts of Uganda, as both of these districts are located within the cattle
corridor. A total of 284 fecal samples were collected from both animals and humans in the
study areas, followed by bacterial isolation and antimicrobial susceptibility tests on nine
antimicrobial drugs from (Oxoid; Basingstoke, in the United Kingdom) i.e ciprofloxacin
(5μg), gentamycin (10 μg), tetracycline (30 μg), amoxicillin (25μg), vancomycin (30μg),
ampicillin (10μg), erythromycin (15μg), metronidazole (10μg), and penicillin-g (10μg).
Selected farmers who kept animals and drug shop owners were interviewed using a structured
questionnaire in the kobo collect application to assess the associated predisposing factors of
AMR. The collected data were analyzed using STATA. Bacterial isolation was performed on
all fecal samples. From these, antimicrobial sensitivity tests were carried out on 119 viable E.
coli isolates (62 (52.10%) were of animal origin while 57(47.9%) were human fecal samples).
Overall, 96.98% of the E. coli isolates had developed resistance against at least one
antimicrobial agent used in this study. Probably due to the high level of abuse of
antimicrobial drugs among farmers. Generally, ciprofloxacin and gentamycin, were highly
effective against E. coli isolates from both cattle and humans, whereas the isolates were
resistant (100%) against vancomycin and metronidazole. Therefore, vancomycin and
Metronidazole are not effective against E. coli isolates as shown by the 100% resistance to
both drugs in both humans and cattle. I would recommend the use of ciprofloxacin and
gentamicin as these had a high susceptibility. Rational use of antimicrobial products by all
stakeholders should be practiced. | en_US |
