Antimicrobial resistance of Aeromonas bacteria from chicken sold in Kasubi Market.

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Aeromonas bacteria isolated from chicken sold in Kasubi Market in Kampala where intestinal samples from chicken were collected and Aeromonas bacteria isolated were identified based on phenotypic characteristics including Gram staining, motility, carbohydrate fermentation, and catalase production then antibiotic susceptibility to six antibiotics namely ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, nitrofurantoin and ciprofloxacin was determined using disk diffusion where zone diameters were classified following CLSI guidelines which found that Aeromonas was isolated from 92% of samples indicating high contamination with all isolates resistant to ampicillin, erythromycin and nitrofurantoin while resistance to tetracycline and chloramphenicol was 78.3% and 17.4% respectively and all isolates susceptible to ciprofloxacin demonstrating high prevalence of multidrug resistant Aeromonas particularly to commonly used poultry antibiotics posing a risk to consumers through undercooked chicken thus recommending prudent antibiotic use in poultry farms, improved hygiene during slaughter and processing, and further research on genetic resistance mechanisms to mitigate this public health threat.