Antimicrobial resistance in aerobic bacterial isolates from broiler lungs

Abstract

Antibacterial resistant bacteria cause a big concern to poultry and to public health in general because some bacterial poultry pathogens can infect human or transfer their resistance ability to human pathogens. Non therapeutic use of antibacterial in poultry especially as growth promoters to increase feed conversion efficiency is thought to be one of the main causes of resistance. The study included pulmonary swab samples collected during necropsy from 120 poultry farms showing respiratory symptoms with mortality. The disc diffusion method for antibiotic sensitivity testing was performed and antibiotic disks for 21 antibiotics was used. The results showed that three antibacterials were sensitive to more than 50% of the isolates. The first is doxycycline and 69.9% of the isolates were sensitive. The second is Cefalexin with 60.5% sensitive isolates and third is Chloramphenicol with 55.2% sensitive isolates. In the rest of antibacterials, less than 50% were sensitive. Five isolates were found resistant to all antibacterials. Moreover, three samples were found negative with no bacterial growth. The present study concluded that 50% of the aerobic bacteria isolated from poultry lungs are resistant to 85% of the 21 antibiotics tested in the study.