ISSN: 2375-446X
Bala HK, Igwe JC and Onaolapo JA
The wide spread of methicillin resistance gene calls for concern even in livestock. The epidemiological and antibiotic susceptibility of S. aureus in poultry farms in Zaria, Nigeria was carried out in this study, due to the increasing resistance to antibiotics associated with S. aureus in poultry birds. In this study, 250 samples of chicken droplets were collected from five different poultry farms (50 samples from each farm) within Zaria metropolis. Eighty eight (88) isolates of S. aureus were confirmed using standard microbiological methods. The antibiotic susceptibility profile of the isolates against 8 antibiotics showed that the isolates have varying antibiotics susceptibility patterns. The isolates (41.2%) were observed to be resistant to methicillin and produced β-lactamase while 44.3% were classified as multidrug resistant. The result also showed high MIC value of Oxacillin (≥64 μg/ml) and Vancomycine (4 μg/ml) against the Methicillin resistant isolates. The MARI result showed that 60% of the isolates had MAR index of ≥0.4; indicating that these isolates have been pre-exposed to the antibiotics used in this study. This study showed high incidence of S. aureus with antibiotics resistance among poultry birds in Zaria, Nigeria, and calls for antibiotic surveillance and education of the poultry farm workers to curb the wide spread of resistance gene, which could be transferred into zoonotic diseases.