Survey of drug and phage resistance and colicin and hemolysin production among coliforms isolated in the Ivory Coast

Abstract

Analysis of 178 strains isolated as total and fecal coliforms in the Ivory Coast revealed that (i) hemolytic activity was scarce (0.6%) among this bacterial population; (ii) the most prevalent colicins detected were, in decreasing order, E, I, A, and G; (iii) the frequency of coliphage and drug resistance was similar to that observed in other countries, except for those of drug-resistant strains in animal feces, which were lower than in countries where animals are antibiotic fed; and (iv) one of the drug resistance plasmids seemed to possess a restriction-modification system and another seemed to code for capsular material.