PREVALENCE AND ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE PATTERN IN PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA ISOLATES FROM CHRONIC OTITIS AND PYODERMA SAMPLES OF DOGS IN ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an ESKAPE bacterial pathogen known to be the reason for causing recurrent otitis and suppurative skin infections in dogs. The current study was undertaken to detect the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa isolates from chronic otitis and pyoderma samples of dogs. A total of ninety-seven (n=97) samples were collected, from otitis cases (n=45) and pyoderma cases (n=52). Preliminarily, cultural, and biochemical tests were carried out for the isolation of P. aeruginosa, and molecular tests like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using species-specific 16S rRNA primers that yielded a specific PCR product size of 956bp were utilized as a confirmative test in detecting 35(36.08%) isolates of P. aeruginosa from suspected cases. An antibiotic sensitivity test was performed on all 35 positive P. aeruginosa isolates by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method using a panel of 10 different antibiotics. The results revealed that P. aeruginosa has the highest resistance to tetracycline (97.14%) and the highest sensitivity to imipenem (88.58%). The Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index of all the positive isolates ranged between 0.5-1. All 35 (100%) positive P. aeruginosa isolates were found to be multi-drug resistant (MDR) and 30 (85.71%) isolates were extensively drug-resistant (XDR). In conclusion, this study revealed a high prevalence of MDR and XDR strains of P. aeruginosa in the collected dog samples.

Keywords

• pseudomonas aeruginosa
• dogs
• otitis
• pyoderma
• antibiotic sensitivity test