Abstract
This study is the first to be conducted in Lebanon on the isolation and molecular characterization and the antimicrobial resistance profile of environmental pathogenic bacterial strains. Fifty-seven samples of seawater, sediment, crab, and fresh water were collected during the spring and summer seasons of 2003. The isolation of
Escherichia coli and
Salmonella using appropriate selective media revealed that 94.7% of the tested samples were contaminated with one or both of the tested bacteria. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was then used to identify the species of both bacteria using various sets of primers. Many pathogenic
E. coli isolates were detected by PCR out of which two were identified as O157:H7
E. coli. Similarly, the species of many of the
Salmonella isolates was molecularly identified. The confirmed isolates of
Salmonella and
E. coli were then tested using the disk diffusion method for their susceptibility to four different antimicrobials revealing high rates of antimicrobial resistance.
First report of antibiotic resistance in bacteria in the environment in Lebanon.