Volume: 56 Issue: 1
Year: 2025, Page: 122-128, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2025.56.1.122-128
Received: Sept. 30, 2024 Accepted: Dec. 30, 2024 Published: March 31, 2025
The growing concern of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to global public health. The indiscriminate use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine is considered as one of the major contributer to this challenge. The present study was undertaken to determine the occurrence of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in dairy farms of Thrissur, Kerala. Out of 128 samples collected from various sources including raw milk, water, equipment swabs and handler hand swabs from 32 dairy farms in Thrissur, 38.28 percent tested positive for E. coli using culture techniques. The highest occurrence of E. coli was found in milk and equipment swab samples, with 14 out of 32 samples (43.75%) testing positive for E. coli in both. The occurrence of E. coli in water samples collected from 32 dairy farms was 34.37 per cent and occurrence in handler’s hand swab samples was 31.25 per cent. All the 49 isolates were tested for susceptibility against 13 antibiotics. The highest resistance was observedagainst tetracycline (26.53%) followed by ampicillin (24.49%) and ciprofloxacin (20.41%) while all the isolates were sensitive to chloramphenicol. Multidrug resistance was detected in 12 isolates (24.49%). Three isolates (6.12%) were phenotypically identified as Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) producers. The results underscore the importance of stringent hygiene practices in dairy farms to mitigate microbial contamination and safeguard human and animal health. The findings also call for the necessity of targeted strategies and policy-level interventions to combat AMR.
Keywords: Dairy farm, E. coli, ESBL, multidrug resistance
Allocati, N., Masulli, M., Alexeyev, M.F. and Di Ilio, C. 2013. Escherichia coli in Europe: an overview. Int.J.Environ.Res. PublicHealth. 10: 6235-6254.
Anjum, M.F., Schmitt, H., Börjesson, S., Berendonk, T.U., Donner, E., Stehling, E.G., Boerlin, P., Topp, E., Jardine, C., Li, X. and Li, B. 2021. The potential of using E. coli as an indicator for the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment. Curr. Opin. Microbiol.64:152-158.
Barrow, C.J. and Feltham, R.K.A. 1993. Cowan and Steel’s Manual for the Identification of Medical Bacteria(3rd Ed.). Cambridge press, London. 238p.
Bauer, A.W., Kirby, W.M., Sherris, J.C., and Truck, N. 1966. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing by a standardized single disk method. Am. J. Clin. Pathol. 45: 493-496.
Goulart, D.B. and Mellata, M. 2022. Escherichia coli mastitis in dairy cattle: etiology, diagnosis, and treatment challenges. Front. Microbiol. 13: 1-15.
Jindal, P., Bedi, J., Singh, R., Aulakh, R. and Gill, J. 2021. Phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial resistance patterns of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella isolated from dairy farm milk, farm slurry and water in Punjab, India. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 28: 28556-28570.
Joseph, J. and Kalyanikutty, S. 2022. Occurrence of multiple drug-resistant shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli in raw milk samples collected from retail outlets in South India. J. Food Sci.Tech. 59: 2150-2159.
Kamaruzzaman, E.A., Abdul Aziz, S., Bitrus, A.A., Zakaria, Z. and Hassan, L. 2020. Occurrence and characteristics of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli from dairy cattle, milk, and farm environments in Peninsular Malaysia. Pathogens. 9:1007-1017.
Kamboj, S., Manoj, J., Kaur, J., Singh, M. and Chhabra, R. 2024. Prevalence and risk factors of β-lactamase genes of extended-spectrum β-lactamases-producing Escherichia colifrom dairy farm environments of Haryana, India. Environ. Health Insights. 18: 1-12.
Kar, D., Bandyopadhyay, S., Bhattacharyya, D., Samanta, I., Mahanti, A., Nanda, P.K., Mondal, B., Dandapat, P., Das, A.K., Dutta, T.K. and Bandyopadhyay, S. 2015. Molecular and phylogenetic characterization of multidrug resistant extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli isolated from poultry and cattle in Odisha, India. Infect. Genet. Evol. 29: 82-90.
Kaur, J., Mahajan, G., Chand, K. and Chopra, S. 2016. Enhancing phenotypic detection of ESBL in AmpC co-producers by using cefepime and tazobactam. J. Clin.Diagn.Res. 10: 1-14.
Kuralayanapalya, S.P., Patil, S.S., Hamsapriya, S., Shinduja, R., Roy, P. and Amachawadi, R.G. 2019. Prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing bacteria from animal origin: A systematic review and meta-analysis report from India. PLoS One. 14: 1-15.
Lakshmi, R. and Jayavardhanan, K.K. 2016. Isolation and identification of major causing bacteria from bovine mastitis. Int. J. Appl. Pure Sci. Agric.2: 45-48.
Murugesan, D., Tewari, R., Ojha, R., Mendem, S.K., Das, L.J., Venugopal, N., Rajangam, S., Chanda, M.M., Nayakvadi, S., Shome, R. and Shome, B.R. 2022. A cross sectional study on the prevalence of MDR Staphylococci and E. coli from livestock in Karnataka, India.Res. Sq.1: 1-13
O'neill, J.I.M. 2014. Antimicrobial resistance: tackling a crisis for the health and wealth of nations. Rev. Antimicrob. Resist. 1: 1-20.
Raosaheb, C.V., Manimaran, A., Sivaram, M. and Jeyakumar, S. 2020. Antimicrobials use pattern under organized and unorganized dairy production conditions in southern India. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 90: 362-366.
Rhouma, M., Soufi, L., Cenatus, S., Archambault, M. and Butaye, P. 2022. Current insights regarding the role of farm animals in the spread of antimicrobial resistance from a one health perspective. Vet. Sci. 9: 480-497.
Sandeep, P.R., Ambily, R., Irshad.A and Joseph, S. 2023. Detection of carbapenem resistant Escherichia coli in cattle and pigs. J. Vet. Anim. Sci.54:313-321.
Sethulekshmi, C. 2016. Epidemiological surveillance of enterohemorrhagic E. coli.Ph.D. thesis, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, 149p.
Singh, K., Chandra, M., Kaur, G., Narang, D. and Gupta, D.K. 2018. Prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern among the mastitis causing microorganisms. Open J. Vet. Med. 8: 54-65.
Shoorashetty, R.M., Nagarathnamma, T. and Prathibha, J. 2011. Comparison of the boronic acid disk potentiation test and cefepime–clavulanic acid method for the detection of ESBL among AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae. Indian J. Med. Microbiol. 29: 297-301.
Tiseo, K., Huber, L., Gilbert, M., Robinson, T.P. and Van Boeckel, T.P. 2020. Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals from 2017 to 2030. Antibiotics. 9: 918-932.
Vanitha, H.D., Sethulekshmi, C., Latha, C., Prejit, R. and Mercey, K.A. 2018. Molecular detection of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli in raw milk samples of Thrissur. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 1: 44-47.
WHO [World Health Organisation]. 2023. Antimicrobial resistance. Retrieved November 13, 2024 from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance
© 2025 Fathima et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Fathima, M., Vijay, D., Sunil, B., Jolly, D., Mathew, B. and Gleeja, V.L. 2024. Antimicrobial resistance profiling of Escherichia coli isolates from dairy farms of Thrissur, Kerala: A One Health perspective
J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 56 (1):122-128