Characterization of antimicrobial resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonellain village chickens in selected districts of Lusaka

Abstract

Antimicrobial agents used in poultry productionare a great contributorto the emergence of resistant microorganisms. This cross- sectional study focused on characterization of the phenotypes of antimicrobialresistant E. coli and Salmonella in market ready- village chickens in Lusaka province of Zambia. Random sampling was used to sample 179 market ready village chickens from 55 households and 5 commercial establishments. At each point, cloacal swabs were collected from randomly selected chickens.E. colipositive isolates found were 66 and non for Salmonella. E. coli isolates gave 37% of the sampled chickens and were all tested for resistance to 10 classes of antibiotics. Each of the isolates was found to be resistant to at least oneantibiotic and the results were as follows: Ampicillin 66.7%, Ceftazidime 12.1%, Cefotaxime 37.9%, Gentamicin 50%, Nalidixic acid 37.9%, Ciprofloxacin 60.6%, Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole 62.1%, Colistin 42.4 %, Chloramphenicol 27.3% and Tetracycline 81.8 %. Data revealed that village chickens in Lusaka province are reservoirs of resistant E. coli and it can, therefore be concluded that the use of antimicrobial agents should be reduced in poultry production in order to reduce antibiotic resistance.This calls for an effective surveillance system to ensure that there iscontinuous monitoring of AMR in Zambia.