Resistance to metal ions and antibiotics in Escherichia coli isolated from foodstuffs

Abstract

Summary. Of 39 strains of Escherichia coli isolated from foodstuffs, all were resistant to at least one of a panel of four metallic ions tested. The most common resistance (94.9%) was against cadmium, followed by arsenate (76.9%), silver (71.8%) and mercury (61.5%). Multiple resistance to three (35.9%) or four (38.5%) metals was seen more often than resistance to two (1 8%) or one (7.7%) metal only. The opposite trend was seen in antibiotic resistance; resistance to one (30%) or two (49%) antibiotics was more common than to three or more antibiotics (13%). Resistance to kanamycin correlated with resistance to silver and cadmium ions and resistance to ampicillin or cephalothin was, with one exception, associated with resistance to cadmium ions.

Antimicrobial resistance of bacterial strains isolated from orange juice products

“…The number of such antibiotics ranged from two to eight, and falls within the range obtained by earlier workers (Grewal and Tiwari, 1990;Singh et al, 1995;Rahman Khan and Malik, 2001). Multiple drug-resistance is an extremely serious public health problem (Prescott et al, 1999) and it has always been associated with outbreak of major epidemics throughout the world.…”

“…The results of the antibiotic sensitivity test were interpreted and are presented as the resistance of bacterial isolates to the antibiotics (Table 1), and the antibiotic resistance pattern among the bacterial isolates (Table 2). In several earlier works on similar studies carried out on foodstuffs including orange juices, researches have been focused mainly on the strains of E. coli and S. aureus (Umoh et al, 1990;Grewal and Tiwari, 1990;Abbar and Kaddar, 1991;Singh et al, 1995;Desai and Kamat, 1998;Leegar et al, 1999;Silva et al, 2000;Rahman Khan and Malik, 2001). However, in this work, a broad overview of the study was conducted and this is why the resistance pattern and the mechanisms in selected strains of all the bacteria isolated from the orange juices were studied.…”

“…In several studies that have been conducted on the resistance of food-borne pathogens, emphasis had been on E. coli and S. aureus (Umoh et al, 1990;Grewal and Tiwari, 1990;Abbar and Kaddar, 1991;Singh et al, 1995;Desai and Kamat, 1998;Leegar et al, 1999;Silva et al, 2000;Rahman Khan and Malik, 2001). However, in the present study, an attempt was made to evaluate the resistance of selected strains of all the bacterial strains that were isolated from the orange fruit products.…”

Antimicrobial and mercury resistance in aerobic gram-negative bacilli in fecal flora among persons with and without dental amalgam fillings

“…Hg resistance levels among isolated gram-negative bacilli range from 9% in clinical isolates of E. coli in St. Louis, Mo. (24), to 61.5% in E. coli strains isolated from foodstuffs in India (9). Since resistance levels are usually higher in developing countries (1), the 19% found in this study is within the range expected in an industrialized country.…”

Perspectives on the prevention and treatment of infection for orthopedic tissue engineering applications

“…Though silver NPs appear to be an attractive solution to the problem of antibiotic resistance, there are reports of silver-resistant bacterial strains [37]. More importantly, plasmids that encode for silver resistance also have been shown to often encode antibiotic-resistance as well [41]. Increased use of silver NPs may lead to an increased selective pressure toward antibioticresistance bacterial strains through this genetic linkage.…”