| Abstrakt: |
Thermophilic Campylobacterspp. are important causative agents of diarrhoeal disease in humans. Antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacterspp. that originate from poultry can enter the human food chain and result in resistant Campylobacter spp. in human infections. Campylobacterspp. were isolated from chicken faeces collected from chicken farms near Harare. Human isolates of Campylobacterspp. were obtained from clinical laboratories in Harare. The Campylobacterisolates were identifed by biochemical tests and tested for their susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs using the disc-diffusion method. A total of 77 human and 83 chicken isolates were characterised. C. jejuniwas the most common in both humans (75.3%) and chickens (60.2%), followed by C. coli, which was detected in 19.5% of human and 28.9% of chicken isolates, and then C. lari, detected in 5.2% of human and 10.8% of chicken isolates. All the Campylobacterspp. from humans and chickens were susceptible to erythromycin and all isolates from the chickens were also susceptible to chloramphenicol and gentamicin. Over 85% of the isolates from humans and chickens were susceptible to ciprofoxacin, norfoxacin and tetracycline. Approximately 50% of the isolates from humans and 82% of those from chickens were resistant to co-trimoxazole. All the human and chicken Campylobacterisolates that were resistant to norfoxacin were also resistant to ciprofoxacin. The present study has shown low levels of resistance of Campylobacterspp. from humans and chickens to most of the antimicrobial drugs tested, with the exception of co-trimoxazole. |
