Abstract:
Development of antimicrobial resistance is a public health concern at the global level, and
the spread of antimicrobial resistance are complex problems driven by numerous
interconnected factors such as misuse of antimicrobials. Antimicrobial resistance among
these foodborne bacteria is common with indiscriminate use of the antimicrobials in food
animals. This study was aimed at isolating Salmonella spp, Proteus spp and Escherichia
coli from broiler chicken meat and investigating their antibiotic sensitivity to commonly
used antibiotics such as trimethoprim (25µg), Ceftriaxone (30µg), gentamycin (10µg),
ampicillin (25µg) and ciprofloxacin (30µg) by disk diffusion assay. Meat samples were
collected as pooled samples from eight retail shops in the Rathnapura area and 15
organisms were identified by the conventional phenotypic method. Most abundant
were Proteus mirabilis (6/15), followed by E.coli (4/15), Salmonella spp (3/15),
and Proteus vulgaris (2/15). All Salmonella isolates showed resistance to ampicillin and
intermediate resistance to ciprofloxacin whereas all Salmonella isolates were sensitive to
ceftriaxone and trimethoprim while 2 of them (Salmonella isolate) were resistant to
gentamicin and 1 (Salmonella isolate) showed intermediate resistant. Although
all E.coli isolates exhibited resistance to gentamycin and ampicillin some of them were
sensitive to ciprofloxacin (3/4), ceftriaxone (2/4) and trimethoprim (1/4). Further, the
study indicated that all of Proteus vulgaris are resistant to gentamycin and ampicillin
whereas they all were sensitivity to ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin. Out of six isolates
of Proteus mirabilis five isolates were resistant to both gentamycin and trimethoprim
whereas they were resistant ampicillin. But five isolates (6) were sensitivity to
ceftriaxone. Moreover, some of the organisms (E. coli and Proteus mirabilis) showed
multidrug resistance. The findings of the study concluded that there is a risk of
development of antibiotic-resistant in broiler chicken and this will be an alarming sign to
take precautionary actions.
Keywords: Isolation, Salmonella, E. coli, Proteus, Antibiotic sensitivity
