Antibiotics Resistance and Abundance of Some Bacteria from Agricultural and Non-agricultural Soil in One of the Most Agriculturally-active Settings in West Cameroon

Background: Agriculture is also concerned with the problem of bacterial resistance because agricultural soils are reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic-resistant genes. Objective: An investigation about ARB was carried out on agricultural soils in Mangoum, a neighborhood of the Foumbot municipality (Noun division, West Cameroon). Methods: It was conducted as a cross-sectional descriptive study with a total of 46 soil specimens collected from plant farms and a control plot. Isolation, enumeration and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed according to standard protocols. Results: The bacteria recovered included Aeromonas spp., Chryseobacterium spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus spp., and Gram-positive rods. Their loads in the farmland soils were significantly lower than in the control plot. Overall, susceptibility tests performed with 169 bacterial colony morphotypes revealed high resistance rates. Also, most of the isolates expressed multidrug-resistance to the antibiotics used, while highest resistance rates were recorded with isolates form agricultural plots. Levofloxacin, Imipenem, Gentamicin and Ciprofloxacin were globally the most effective. Conclusion: Agreeing with previous surveys conducted on animal farms, these findings could provide support to the sustainable orientation of policies regarding the control of antimicrobial resistance in Cameroon from the One Health perspective.