Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Escherichia coli isolated from different varieties of meat and meat handlers

The present research work was carried out in the department of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology, College of Veterinary Science & A.H., Kamdhenu University, Navsari from December 2022 to May 2023, with the aim to identify the antibiotic susceptibility of the Escherichia coli. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microbial quality of the meat sold in the open market the of Navsari city. Among 270 samples 63(23.3%) were confirmed to be positive for E. coli. Antibiotic sensitivity test was performed on all 63 isolates using 11 antibiotics by agar disc diffusion method. The isolates exhibited 100% resistance towards Penicillin followed in descending order by Erythromycin (93.7%), Streptomycin (85.71%), Amikacin (77.7%) and Gentamicin (63.49%). An intermediate sensitivity/resistance was noticed against Amoxicillin (69.8%). While, the highest sensitivity of 92.5% was reported towards Tetracycline followed by 84.12% against each, Norfloxacin and Ciprofloxacin, 82.5% towards Chloramphenicol and, Enrofloxacin showed the least sensitivity of 68.25%. Multiple Antibiotic Resistance was exhibited by all the isolates. Moreover, 4.7%, 22.2%, 44.4%, 20.6% and 7.9%, isolates were resistant to 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 antibiotics, respectively.