Prevelence And Characterization Of Antibiotic Resistance Enterococci From Human With Dental Plague

Two hundred and fifty patients with dental plague aged 8 to 80 years were screened for Enterococcus species. Susceptibility of the isolates to various antibiotics and antimicrobial agents including enzymatic and haemolytic reactions were determined. 44 patients were positive for Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), out of which 23 (9.2%) of them were positive for Enterococcus species, mostly from men between 21 to 40 years of age. The Enterococcus species isolated includes; E. munditti, E. faecium, E. facealis, E. gallinarum, E. dispar, E. avium, E. hirae, E. porcinus, E. cecorum and E. ratti. E. faecalis had the highest occurrence of 21.74% while E. ratti had percentage occurrence of 4.34%. All the isolates exhibited multiple antibiotics resistance and were sensitive to 30mg calcium hydroxide, 22%v/v ethanol, 35%w/v sodium chloride, 85%w/v sucrose and 6%v/v hydrogen peroxide. None of the isolates have lipolytic activity but some have amylolytic and proteolytic activity, produced gelatinase and haemolysed red blood cell. There is need to investigate the pathogenicity and adhesion mechanisms of these isolates in human with dental caries. (Ogunbanwo ST, Uzokwe F, Emikpe BO, Oni LO, Adegoke CO. Prevelence and characterization of antibiotic