One hundred and eighty samples for culture of ear and nose swabs collected from livestock at a local animal farm at Umudike were examined to determine the incidence of Staphylococcus aureus. The susceptibility of the isolates to 15 antimicrobial agents allowed for human and animal therapy were also evaluated. The results show that these animals frequently harbour S. aureus strains. In addition, a high number (79%) of the isolates were resistant to one or more antimicrobial agents and 10 different resistance profiles were recorded. Resistance to amoxycillin (71%) and Cotrimoxazole (62.2%) was demonstrated for the isolates. The result indicate that the occurrence of multi-resistant S. aureus strains in farm animals may constitute a reservoir for disseminating antibiotic-resistance in the community and the need for the prudent drugs use to diminish the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance. PDFReferencesCitation
How to cite this article
O.K. Achi and G.A. Ugbogu, 2006. Characterization of Drug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus of Animal Origin . Journal of Biological Sciences, 6: 1088-1092.