Antibiotic sensitivity patterns and conjugative transferability of drug resistance in Escherichia coli isolates from rectal swabs taken from De La Salle University students

Escherichia coli was isolated from students of De La Salle University. The isolates were studied for their antibiotic susceptibility patterns and the conjugative transferability of resistance to the following test antibiotics, namely: ampicillin, cephalothin, cotrimoxazole, gentamicin, kanamycin, and nalidixic acid. Of the 73 isolates collected from rectal swabs taken from De La Salle University students, 36 (49.32%) were shown to be resistant to 1 13.70 % were resistant to 2 16.44% were resistant to 3 2.74 were resistant to 4 1.37 % were resistant to 5 and 0 % were resistant to 6 of the test antibiotics. Among the 8 isolates that were tested for the conjugative transferability of their antibiotic resistance, 7 (87.50%) effected complete transfer of their resistance genes while one (12.50 %) transferred only the resistance to one drug. Resistance to cephalothin and cotrimoxazole were not transferred in the isolate