ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING AND PLASMID PROFILES OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI ISOLATED FROM DIARRHEAL PATIENTS

The antibiotic resistance pattern and plasmid profiles were studied fo r a total of 89 Escherichia call (E. coli) isolates recovered from fae cal specimens of children hospitalized with diarrhoea in Rahma hospita l for children, Irbid-Jordan, Twenty-four of these were identified as diarrhoeagenic E. coli by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedur e, Seventy-one E. coli isolates showed a multiple resistance pattern ( to 10 antibiotics) and 13 isolates were susceptible to all antibiotics tested. All the 89 isolates were sensitive to malidixic acid. Plasmid content and profile studies showed Chat the 76 E. coli drug resistant isolates (including 6 and BZ isolates that showed single resistance t o tetracycline and ampicillin respectively) carried plasmids ranging F rom 54.0 kb to 1.5 kb in size. The number of plasmids in each of these isolates ranged from one to six of different sizes. All the E. coli i solates contained a common plasmid with a molecular weight of 25.0 lib which proved to confer resistance to ampicillin, kanamycin, tetracycl ine, and possibly chloramphenicol.