Antimicrobial-resistant patterns of Escherichia coli and Salmonella strains in the aquatic Lebanese environments

Steve Harakeh, Hadi Yassine, Mutasem El-Fadel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study is the first to be conducted in Lebanon on the isolation and molecular characterization and the antimicrobial resistance profile of environmental pathogenic bacterial strains. Fifty-seven samples of seawater, sediment, crab, and fresh water were collected during the spring and summer seasons of 2003. The isolation of Escherichia coli and Salmonella using appropriate selective media revealed that 94.7% of the tested samples were contaminated with one or both of the tested bacteria. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was then used to identify the species of both bacteria using various sets of primers. Many pathogenic E. coli isolates were detected by PCR out of which two were identified as O157:H7 E. coli. Similarly, the species of many of the Salmonella isolates was molecularly identified. The confirmed isolates of Salmonella and E. coli were then tested using the disk diffusion method for their susceptibility to four different antimicrobials revealing high rates of antimicrobial resistance.

Original languageBritish English
Pages (from-to)269-277
Number of pages9
JournalEnvironmental Pollution
Volume143
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2006

Keywords

  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Escherichia coli (STX-EC)
  • Salmonella paratyphi
  • Seawater

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