ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANCE PROFILES OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI ISOLATED FROM RURAL AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

Sludge and waste water samples from a variety of locations (in the Uni ted States and from one location in Mexico) were evaluated to determin e whether multiple antibiotic resistant resistance patterns correlated with location and type of waste. The occurrence of antibiotic resista nt strains of Escherichia coli was dependent upon site among the eleve n locations sampled (P < 0.001). The E. coli strains from digested mun icipal sewage sludge from El Paso, Texas and those from an El Paso arm y hospital were resistant to the widest range of antibiotics and were resistant to a greater number of antibiotics than any other sire (P < 0.01). When isolates from undigested waste water samples were analyzed , there was no significant difference (P greater than or equal to 0.05 ) between those obtained from two neighboring cities located on either side of the US-Mexico border. There was no significant difference in the number of antibiotics to which isolates were resistant when compar ing digested sewage sludge samples from rural and urban areas This sug gests that the digestion process does select From a common set of resi stance markers in E. coli strains Over-all, it does not appear that an tibiotic resistance patterns of isolated E coli strains could be used to categorize waste water samples.