TDK conference 2019

Nowadays one of the most important problems in the world is the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance. As a result of this process so-called antibiotic resistant and multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria appear in human and animal health, too. The main inducers of strain selection are antibacterial treatments with the wrong sub-therapeutic dose. The choice of the active ingredient which is either not applied at the appropriate time, or which is not the most appropriate, significantly increases the spreading of resistant strains.

Therefore, veterinarians should be responsible in choosing the treatment protocol for small and large animals. Care should be taken when choosing the active substance in farm animals, as the use of an antibiotic used in human medicine leads to the selection of resistant strains of bacteria that cause infections endangering the human population. These pathogens enter into the food chain with the meat products. The swine industry uses the highest amounts of antibiotics and the pork is the most popular product in stores.

In our research work, we collected colonic mucosa tampon samples from nearly 100 gastrointestinal tracts of swine in a slaughterhouse in Hungary. Eighty different Escherichia coli strains were isolated from the samples using selective broth. The in vitro antibiotic susceptibility of the strains was determined using a micro-dilution method for five active substances, used regularly in the swine industry. The MIC values (minimum inhibitory concentration) show the breakpoint of the strains to the active compounds. More than 90% of the strains showed resistance to amoxicillin. Most of the strains were sensitive to other antibiotics (gentamicin, enrofloxacin, ceftiofur, colistin).