Antimicrobial Profiles and Conventional PCR Assay of Shiga Toxigenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC) Isolated from Cattle Slaughtered at Bedele Municipal Abattoir, South West Ethiopia

Yoobsan Fikadu; Tadele Kabeta; Diriba Diba; Hika Waktole

doi:10.2147/IDR.S388102

Antimicrobial Profiles and Conventional PCR Assay of Shiga Toxigenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC) Isolated from Cattle Slaughtered at Bedele Municipal Abattoir, South West Ethiopia

Infect Drug Resist. 2023 Jan 25:16:521-530. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S388102. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yoobsan Fikadu¹, Tadele Kabeta², Diriba Diba³, Hika Waktole⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Health Research, Horro Guduru Livestock Genetic Conservation and Research Center, Wollega University, Guduru, Ethiopia.
² Department of Public Health, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia.
³ Office of Vice President for Research Community Engagement and Technology Transfer, Wollega University, Nekemte, Ethiopia.
⁴ College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC) is considered the most prevalent food borne pathogen that has gained increasing attention worldwide in recent years.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Bedele Municipal abattoir on cattle that were reported healthy from detailed ante-mortem inspections and having various body conditions scores. A total of 516 samples were collected and examined after enriched in modified peptone water. Following an enrichment, the samples were plated onto MacConkey agar and then onto Eosin methylene blue agar. Finally after a few similar procedures, 14 E. coli O157:H7 (STEC) isolates were confirmed through latex agglutination test. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software.

Results: This study finding revealed that the overall prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 out of 516 samples was found to be 2.7%. However, on sample type basis, the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 from feacal samples, carcass swabs, butcher hand swabs and knife swabs were 4.7%, 3.3%, 1.1% and 1.1%, respectively. It was also found that that the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 was significantly affected by age groups of slaughtered cattle (p<0.05). Moreover, in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility test result on average showed that almost all of E. coli O157:H7 isolates were highly susceptible to kanamycin and no resistance was shown to ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. Finally, the conventional PCR detection of stx1, st2 and hylA genes revealed that only 21.4% and 14.3% were found to contain stx1 and hylA genes respectively.

Conclusion: To wrap up, this study showed that Shiga toxin producing E. coli O157:H7 (STEC) isolates were found with almost low overall prevalence rate from all sample sources in this study site. Therefore, improving abattoir facilities and slaughter house workers' personal hygiene are recommended to curtail E. coli O157:H7 meat contamination in this abattoir.

Keywords: antimicrobial susceptibility test; cattle; conventional PCR analysis; personal hygiene.