African Journal of Virology Research

African Journal of Virology Research ISSN 3421-7347 Vol. 1 (1), pp. 032-035, February, 2007. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A study of the antibiotic resistant pattern of Salmonella typhi from some clinical samples

*Falola Aboderin, Isaac Idachaba and Rasaki Aramide

Department of Microbiology, School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Federal University of Technology; PMB 2076 Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 05 March, 2007

Abstract

Due to reported cases of antimicrobial resistance by many pathogenic bacteria against many antibiotics worldwide, and the sparse nature of antimicrobial resistance data, a retrospective study was carried out on 744 isolates of Salmonella typhi obtained from 974 samples from four different hospitals in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria between 2001-2004 to determine the resistance pattern of S. typhi to the most commonly used antibiotics cotrimoxazole, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol and ampicillin. High rates of resistance was found in most of the isolates studied. Resistance rates were 92.3, 88.8, 79.6, 53.5 and 20% to amoxicillin, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, cotrimoxazole and ciprofloxacin, respectively. The high percentage resistance to the antibiotics studied could be attributed to their prevailing usage and abuse in the area under study. The implication of the high percentage resistance recorded for the antibiotics is that only ciprofloxacin will effectively treat S. typhi infections. These results call for nationwide surveillance programme to monitor microbial trends and antimicrobial resistance patterns in Nigeria.

Key words: Antibiotics, resistance, surveillance, Nigeria, Salmonella typhi.

African Journal of Virology Research ISSN 3421-7347 Vol. 1 (5), pp. 077-085, May, 2007. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A study of microbial medium formulated from industrial food waste

Zvidzai C.* ¹, Muzhinji N.¹, Chidzvondo F.¹, Mundembe R.², and Sithole-Niang I.¹

¹Biochemistry Department, University of Zimbabwe, Box MP167, Mt. Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe.

²Bindura University of Science and Education, P. Bag 1020, Bindura, Zimbabwe.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 15 February, 2007

Abstract

A microbial medium, designated DYSP medium, was produced from food wastes that included defatted soya, clear beer spent yeast, potato solid waste and opaque beer spent grains. Various combinations of the food wastes were used for the media formulations and evaluated for extent of supporting microbial growth of pure cultures. A 3.0 M sodium hydroxide hydrolysis followed by a neutralization process using concentrated hydrochloric acid has been established and standardized for the preparation of the medium. A dry pulverized medium was produced that could be reconstituted in distilled water (dH₂O) without settleable solids.The formulated DYSP medium supported the growth of Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The composition of the medium was 35.45% protein, 5.7% nitrogen, 56.6% ash, 8.6% moisture and 0.012 mg/ml of total reducing sugar. The pH of the DYSP broth was 6.6 when reconstituted in distilled water. Traditional classical microbiological studies demonstrated that the test cultures could grow and retain normal phenotypic and morphological properties when cultured on the formulated medium.The DYSP medium containing ampicillin, isopropyl ß-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-ß-D-galactoside proved to be an equally alternative medium in molecular biology for selection and screening E. coli TG1 cells transformed with pUC18 plasmid. Other preliminary biotechnological results showed that the formulated medium could form a base for studying and optimizing the production of penicillin by P. chrysogenum.

Key words: Food wastes, chemical hydrolysis culturing medium, fermentation and molecular biology.

African Journal of Virology Research ISSN 3421-7347 Vol. 1 (6), pp. 098-102, June, 2007. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Assessment of drinking water sources from rural areas of Zimbabwe

Zvidzai C.¹*, Mukutirwa T.², Mundembe R.² and Sithole-Niang I.¹

¹Biochemistry Department, University of Zimbabwe, Box MP167, Mt. Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe

²Bindura University of Science and Education, P. O. Box, Bindura, Zimbabwe.

*Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 22 April, 2007

Abstract

Traditional methods employing selective, differential and non-selective media were used to isolate and identify different species of bacteria from rural drinking water reservoirs of Mount Darwin district of Zimbabwe. The colony counts from non-selective nutrient agar plates gave an indication of the overall level of bacterial activity from each water sample. Open deep wells, shallow wells and rivers were found to be the most heavily contaminated water sources. Borehole water sources had very low total microbial loads and absent in some of the water samples. The prevalent bacteria found were the Gram negative Escherichia coli, Shigella, Salmonella, Enterobacter aerogenes and one cocci species that was not further characterized. The presence of faecal pathogenic species in the river water and open wells poses epidemiological cases of diarrhoeal diseases in the district studied.

Key words: Drinking water, microbial analysis, faecal bacteria, bacteriophages, phenotypic.