Antibiogram and genotyping of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from human, animal, plant, water and soil sources in north India

Abstract

The present study was designed to determine antibiotic resistance rates and patterns and its correlation with enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) whole genome analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa obtained from clinical and environmental sources. In order to determine the possibility of clonality in the bacteria and to track the resistance markers for a better understanding of the epidemiology of drug resistance. A total of 500 strains, 100 each from clinical, water, animal, plant and soil sources were subjected to antibiogram analysis by disc diffusion method. Seventy-five randomly selected strains, 15 each of the five sources were subjected to ERIC-PCR analysis. Clinical isolates were more resistant to combinations of very high numbers of drugs as compared to isolates from other sources. Weak clonality was observed in P. aeruginosa by ERIC-PCR method with 80% of the clinical strains belonging to only 3 clones. It could be concluded that it is the drug selection pressure in clinical environment that is causing the accumulation of drug resistance against many antimicrobials. Furthermore, P. aeruginosa does have clonal expansion. Further studies are warranted to confirm the results.