Abstract
The aim of this study was to isolate and molecularly characterize
Streptococcus pneumoniae in samples collected from the aquatic environment in Lebanon. For this purpose, 57 samples of ground waters, sea water, sediments and crabs were collected. Biochemical tests as well as PCR were used for further identification and molecular characterization of 46 suspected isolates using specific primers for the
lytA-gene and
protein 2B-gene. The confirmed isolates were evaluated for their antimicrobial resistance, using the minimum inhibitory concentration method. Crab samples exhibited a high contamination level of an average count of 8.2
×
10
4
CFU/g. In water samples, the highest contamination was recorded near a coastal landfill with a bacterial count of 1.8
×
10
3
CFU/ml whereas the lowest bacterial counts (non detectable) were observed in ground water samples. Twenty out of the 46 suspected isolates came from sea water, and 17 out of those were characterized by PCR as
S. pneumoniae. Testing the antimicrobial resistance of the 20 isolates to various antimicrobials showed that all sea water isolates were resistant to vancomycin, gentamicin, and oxacillin (100%), whereas 62.5% were resistant to clindamycin, and only 25% were erythromycin resistant. Resistance rates were higher in the case of fresh water samples, with 57% resistance to erythromycin, and 100% resistance to vancomycin, gentamicin, clindamycin and oxacillin. Alternatively, all tested crab isolates were susceptible to erythromycin. However, they showed a high resistance of 80% against vancomycin, gentamicin, clindamycin and 100% against oxacillin.