Antimicrobial resistance profile of bacteria isolated from the vagina of nulliparous cattle

Abstract

Breeding soundness evaluation and investigation of reproductive disorders require the profiling of resident microbial communities in the reproductive tract. This study was designed to investigate the antibiotic resistance profile of bacteria in the vagina of cattle. Deep vaginal swabs were collected from nulliparous cattle (n=82) at the lairage of the Akinyele Abattoir, Ibadan, Nigeria from September to November 2022. Bacterial isolation and characterization were done using standard techniques while the evaluation of the antimicrobial resistance pattern was conducted using the disc diffusion technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Bacterial growth was obtained from 45 (55%) samples. The isolates were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (34.1%), Salmonella typhimurium (29.3%), Enterobacter aerogenes (12.2%), Citrobacter freundii (7.3%), Providencia alcalifaciens (12.2%), and Providencia stuartii (4.9%). The bacterial isolates were completely resistant (100%) to penicillin, ceftriaxone, doxycycline, tetracycline, metronidazole, and furaltadone, highly resistant to amoxicillin (83.3%), moderately resistant to streptomycin (33.3%), and low resistance (16.7%) to gentamicin and enrofloxacin. The growing trend in antimicrobial resistance in microflora of food animals in Nigeria calls for stricter control of the use of antibiotics in livestock production.