COMBINED EFFECT OF ANTIBIOTICS AND HEAVY METALS ON E. COLI ISOLATED FROM CLINICAL, SEWAGE AND POULTRY SOURCE

Abstract

The rising threat of antibiotic resistance limits usefulness of presently employed antibiotics, where the heavy metals are known to play an important role in spread of this resistance. Present study investigated prevalence of multi-drug resistant, Colistin resistant and heavy metal resistant E. coli in clinical, sewage and poultry sources. Impact of heavy metals on antibiotics susceptibility pattern was analyzed. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed significant difference among the poultry, clinical and sewage isolates of E. coli (p<0.05) (n=7). Most frequently encountered form of resistance was observed against third generation antibiotics Ceftaxidime and Cefotaxime. All the isolates were found to be multi heavy metal resistant. Effect of heavy metals and antibiotics combination on the growth of nine MDRE. coli illustrated highest synergism for Gentamycin with four heavy metals combined, whereas only Ciprofloxacin exhibited antagonistic effect. This study concludes that occurrence and co-occurrence of heavy metals and antibiotics may induce & spread antibiotic resistance among various microbial species, threatening public health and ecological safety. Better understanding is needed for controlling the antibiotic resistance in bacteria.