Cloacal feacal carriage and occurrence of antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli in chicken grown with and without antibiotic supplemented feed

Drug resistant Escherichia coli persist in the intestinal flora of poultry birds, and these serve as route via which they can be transmitted directly to humans, thus contributing to the already growing crisis of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study was to determine the cloacal feacal carriage and occurrence of antibiotic resistant E. coli isolates from chicken fed with and without antibiotic supplemented feeds. Cloacal feacal swabs (n = 200) were aseptically obtained from two poultry farms in Abakaliki metropolis, Ebonyi state of Nigeria, and these were inoculated on MacConkey and cystine-lactose-electrolyte-deficient (CLED) media and incubated at 37°C for 18 to 24 h. Suspected colonies of E. coli growing on the agar media were subcultured, purified and further characterized using standard microbiology techniques. Antibiogram was investigated using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method as per the clinical laboratory standards institute (CLSI) criteria. A total of 45 E. coli was isolated from the 200 cloacal feacal swab samples used for this study. Overall, 28% of E. coli were isolated from chicken fed with feed supplemented with antibiotics while only 17% of E. coli was isolated from chicken that received feed without antibiotics supplements. All the E. coli isolates showed varying rates of resistance and susceptibility to the tested antibiotics. Our results strongly reveal the occurrence of antibiotic resistant E. coli from chicken fed with and without antibiotic supplemented feeds. It is very critical that the continuous use of antibiotics in poultry production be strictly monitored, controlled and discouraged in order to contain the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria through poultry production.