ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE OF Escherichia coli RECOVERED FROM RECTAL SWABS OF PIGS IN BACOLOD CITY, PHILIPPINES

A total of 100 rectal swabs were taken from pigs brought to the slaughter house of Bacolod City, Philippines for the evaluation on the carriage of multi-drug resistance of E. coli. This study was conducted from June to August of 2015. Out of the 100 rectal swabs taken, 52 were found to be positive for E. coli that were isolated by routine culture methods and were tested against 9 antibiotics using the standard Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Highest resistance was found against tetracycline (88.5%), followed by trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, (55.8%) and ampicillin (46.2%). On the other hand, imipenem (1.9%), cefotaxime (3.8%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and ceftazidime (7.7%) showed least resistance to the isolated organism. This study showed that pigs brought to the slaughter house of Bacolod City may pose as a source of reservoir for multi-drug resistant E. coli. Workers assigned in the slaughter house must practice care to control the possible spread of this bacteria.