Evaluation of Antibiogram Profile of Vibrio cholerae Isolates from Sea Foods and Water Samples from Cross River State, Nigeria

Aim: To evaluate the antibiogram profile of Vibrio cholerae [V. cholerae] strains isolated from Cross River State environment.

Study Design: The cross-sectional study was a completely Randomized design because it is flexible and yields maximum degrees of freedom for any experimental errors.

Place and Duration of Study: This was conducted in the Department of Microbiology University of Cross River State Calabar, Nigeria, between 2022 and 2024.

Methodology: A total of 1,155 V. cholerae strains were isolated from water samples and sea foods from the North, Central and Southern geographical zones of CRS. This was done to have a complete picture of the spatial distribution of these MDR strains of the test bacterial strains. A total of 30 samples were assessed from three different locations in each geographical zone, for the presence of V. cholerae strains using conventional culture methods and isolates identified bio/serologically with commercial polyvalent and monovalent antisera. The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) protocols, were implored, for testing the susceptibility of the isolates to 10 commercially used antibiotics.

Results: A total of 529±9.90 (45.8%) of the isolates showed resistance to Augmentin 30µg and 83±2.92 (7.17%) showed resistance to Gentamycin 10 µg. The overall percentage mean resistance by source, showed that the lowest resistance was from Cray fish (44.26±18.422%), and the highest was from Periwinkle (2.17±6.10%). It was also observed that the isolates from Ikom (CR Center) were the most resistant, with, 31.93±25.41%, followed by Calabar (CR South) with 24.54± 19.43% and Obanlikwu (CR North), the least with 9.07±18.80%. Statistically, significant differences were observed in the resistance pattern of the isolates from the different sources and locations, with significant values of .00 respectively (P=.05).

Conclusion: There are great Chances that human infections, caused by these environmental V. cholerae strains can arise from contacts with these environmental sources. There is therefore, a need to carry out a surveillance on these MDR V. cholerae strains to help curb any eventual case of cholera outbreak of in the state.