Antibiogram of Pre-Harvest Escherichia coli 0157:H7 on Cabbage Irrigated with Wastewater

This research investigated the pre-harvest prevalence of E. coli 0157:H7 on cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) grown with contaminated irrigations’ water, of Sharada canal in Kano Nigeria and determined the level of antibiotic’s susceptibility phenotype. E. coli 0157:H7 was isolated by enrichment on Tripticase Soy Broth (TSB), and transferred onto Sorbitol MacConkey agar plates, supplemented with 0.5% sodium thioglycolate, cefexime and potassium telurite (CT-SMAC) and Eosin Methlylene Blue (EMB) repetitively. Non Sorbitol fermented colonies were biochemically screened on Microbact 24E, Latex agglutination and tested on standard antibiotic. A total of 11(22.00%) E. coli 0157:H7 were observed with highest resistance of 54.55% on nalidixic acid, followed by gentimycin and ceporex with 36.36% each. A number of strains showed significant positive correlations, in susceptibility response to drugs like ceporex and streptomicin (r=0.624, P<0.05), pefloxacin and ofloxacin (r=0.624, P<0.05), gentimicin and pefloxacin (r=0.624, P<0.05), and cotrimothaxole and pefloxacin (r=0.624, P<0.05) respectively. Similarly eight patterns of multidrug resistance were observed, 27.27% of the isolates showed resistance of 2 to 5 antibiotics. The prevalence of E. coli 0157:H7 in cabbage coupled with the high multi-drugs resistance, is a subject of public health concerned and therefore call for active surveillance mechanism by government health agencies, for detection of possible E. coli 0157:H7 disease outbreak in the State in routine services.