Antibiotic Susceptibility and Plasmid Profile of Escherichia coli from Door Handles in Two Tertiary Institutions in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Aim: This study is aimed at isolation, antibiotic susceptibility and plasmid study of Escherichia coli isolates from door handles in the study location.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in Nasarawa State University, Keffi and Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, both in Nasarawa state, Nigeria between March 2016 to October 2016.

Methodology: A total of 200 door handles (100 each from the two locations) were sampled and screened for the presence of E. coli. Antibiotics susceptibility study, Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) of the antibiotics, -Lactamase production, conjugation and plasmid profile was studied on the bacterial isolates using standard microbiological protocols.

Results: A total of 62 E. coli were isolated out of 200 door handles sampled and their susceptibilities to ten different commonly used antibiotics were determined. All the isolates had 87 – 100% resistance to all tested antibiotics with the highest susceptibility (13%) exhibited to only Gentamicin and Imipenem. Thirty-two of the isolates have Multiple-Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index of 1.0 and 21(65.6%) of them produced β-lactamase enzymes. Thirteen (59.09%) of the multiple antibiotics resistant E. coli isolates transferred resistance plasmid to Proteus mirabilis via conjugation. Electrophoresis of plasmid DNA in the test multi-antibiotics resistant E. coli isolates showed varying number of plasmids with molecular weights ranging between 1200 and 3000 base pairs.

Conclusion: This study has showed that multi-antibiotic resistance genes from test E. coli could be transmitted to pathogenic bacteria which can result in serious health hazard. Thus, improved hygiene practices should be encouraged and constant microbiological surveillance of door handles in these higher institutions should be encouraged to determine effective antibiotics to solve the health hazard that may arise from E. coli infections.