Senior Agriculture Officer, Crops Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, West Wing, Youyi Building, Brookfields, Freetown 00232, Sierra Leone.
Directorate of Reproductive and Child Health, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Youyi Building, Brookfields, Freetown 00232, Sierra Leone.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 29;19(9):5405. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095405.
The transfer of antibiotic resistance from animals to humans is of concern in recent times. One potential source of such transfer is the untreated poultry excreta used as manure in farming. We aim to identify bacterial isolates and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Escherichia coli in poultry excreta in Sierra Leone. This was a cross-sectional study of fresh poultry excreta samples collected from four commercial poultry sites in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from June−September 2021. Bacterial isolates were tested against eight antibiotics using established standards. Of 100 samples, 93 showed Escherichia coli (93%): of those, eight isolates also had Salmonella (8%). E. coli was 100% resistant to all three ‘Watch’ drugs (erythromycin, cefoxitin and streptomycin) and tetracycline. E. coli was least resistant to ampicillin (12%), followed by chloramphenicol (35%). The prevalence of multidrug resistance was 95.6%. Multiple antibiotic resistance index ranged from 0.5−0.7 (optimal < 0.2), indicating high prior exposure to antibiotics in these poultries. Such high levels of resistance in E. coli isolated from poultry excreta could pose a serious threat to humans. We recommend (i) routine surveillance to monitor antibiotic resistance in poultry excreta, (ii) using poultry excreta as manure only after treatment and (iii) restricting the use of antibiotics as prophylactics and growth promoters in poultry feeds.
近年来，动物对抗生素耐药性向人类的转移引起了关注。这种转移的一个潜在来源是未经处理的家禽粪便作为肥料用于农业。我们旨在确定塞拉利昂家禽粪便中大肠杆菌的细菌分离株和抗生素敏感性模式。这是一项在 2021 年 6 月至 9 月期间，从塞拉利昂弗里敦的四个商业家禽场采集新鲜家禽粪便样本的横断面研究。使用既定标准对抗生素进行了 100 个样本中 93 个显示大肠杆菌（93%）的细菌分离株的测试：其中，8 个分离株还含有沙门氏菌（8%）。大肠杆菌对所有三种“观察”药物（红霉素、头孢西丁和链霉素）和四环素均具有 100%的耐药性。大肠杆菌对氨苄西林（12%）的耐药性最低，其次是氯霉素（35%）。多重耐药的患病率为 95.6%。多重抗生素耐药指数范围为 0.5-0.7（最佳 < 0.2），表明这些家禽中先前接触抗生素的情况很高。从家禽粪便中分离出的大肠杆菌中如此高的耐药性可能对人类构成严重威胁。我们建议：（i）常规监测以监测家禽粪便中的抗生素耐药性；（ii）仅在经过处理后才将家禽粪便用作肥料；（iii）限制将抗生素用作家禽饲料中的预防药物和生长促进剂。
