Plasmid Profile of Multidrug Resistant Bacteria Isolated from Wound Swabs from Hospital Patients in Akure, Nigeria

A total of 347 clinical wound swabs were obtained in Ondo State Specialist Hospital. Isolated pure cultures of bacteria were subjected to various morphology and biochemical tests. The isolates were identified using Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. Ten antibiotics (Oxoid UK) discs were used to determine the drug sensitivity pattern of the bacterial isolates. Plasmids were extracted by alkaline lysis method and electrophoresis of the DNA was carried out on a 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis. This finding revealed that, out of 501 bacterial isolates collected from 347 wound swabs of patients; Staphylococcus aureus was the most predominant (34.73%). Pseudomonas aeuroginosa (27.74%), Streptococcus pyogenes (15.57%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.18%), Proteus mirabilis (7.38%) and Escherichia coli (6.40%) were isolated respectively. Nineteen of the bacterial isolates showed a multiple resistance patterns to 6 or more antibiotics namely; Vancomycin, Methicillin, Cotrimoxazole, Gentamicin, Tetracycline, Netilmicin and Augmentin while all of the isolates were susceptible to Amoxicillin, Ofloxacin and Levoxin. S. aureus (1.4%) and P. aeruginosa (0.79%) were found to display high level of resistance to most tested antibiotics. Plasmid analysis shows that some multi drug resistant (MDR) bacterial isolates harbor one or more plasmids with different molecular weights while some (MDR) bacterial isolates harbor no plasmid. Gene coding for resistance were located on the plasmid while the bacterial isolates without plasmids have their gene coding located on their chromosomal DNA. It is therefore recommended that antimicrobials for the treatment of wound infections should be based on a recent antibiogram tests.