ANTAGONISTIC EFFECTS OF LACTIC ACID BACTERIA ON MULTI-DRUG RESISTANT PATHOGENS FROM CAT FAECES
SOPHIA OLUWADAMILOLA OTTUN, TEMITOPE OLUFUNMILAYO LAWAL*, BOLANLE ALAKE ADENIYI
Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 13(1): 034-044 (2021)
ABSTRACT
Cats being domestic animals are kept as companions of humans but harbour various microorganisms which could become pathogenic to the animal as well as the human companion by zoonotic transfer. An alternative to antibiotics as infectious agents is probiotics which are usually obtained from the same host in which it is intended for use and is currently being researched to check the continuous spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria. This study was conducted to isolate, identify and characterize lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from the faeces of cats and evaluate the antimicrobial effects of such isolated LAB on multidrug-resistant pathogens from the same animals. Faecal samples were randomly collected aseptically from apparently ten healthy cats into sterile universal bottles. Multidrug-resistant bacteria and LAB were isolated using appropriate agar media and identified by partial sequencing of the 16SrRNA gene. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of LAB and bacteria isolates were determined by the agar diffusion method. The antibacterial activity of the LAB was determined against the test pathogens using the agar overlay and agar diffusion methods. Thirty species of LAB were isolated and identified as: Lactobacillus plantarum (14), Lactobacillus plajomi (1), Weissella paramesenteroides (4), Lactobacillus paraplantum (1), Lactobacillus fermentum (2), Weissella confusa (2), Weissella cibaria (2), Enterococcus faecalis (1), Enterococcus durans (2) and Enterococcus hirae (1). Bacteria pathogens were identified as Bacillus cereus C10, Bacillus vietnamensis I8, Aerococcus viridans I7, Shigella flexneri J4 and Escherichia marmotae B24. The LAB and bacteria isolates showed varying susceptibility pattern to antibiotics. Viable LAB cells and cell free supernatant (CSF) inhibited the growth of the test organisms. The viable LAB cells had better antibacterial activity than the CSF with the highest zone of inhibition of 35+0.5 mm against Escherichia marmotae B24 by Weissella confusa LC1. This study revealed that LAB from cat faeces possesses significant antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant pathogens from the same environment.
Email of correspondence: lawaltemitope8@gmail.com
KEYWORDS: Cat faeces; Lactic acid bacteria; Multidrug-resistant pathogens; Antibacterial activity.