Investigation of Cephalosporin and Heavy Metal Resistance of Aeromonas hydrophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strains Isolated from Hospital Sewage in Türkiye

Abstract

In this study, 89 strains of Aeromonas hydrophila and 88 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the sewage of a university hospital in Turkey. The resistance of these bacterial isolates to 11 different cephalosporin classes’ antibiotics belonging to four generations and to 4 heavy metals was investigated. Cadmium, lead, manganese, and zinc are the heavy metals employed. There was a high incidence of resistance to cefazolin (98.9%), cefaclor (98.9%), and cefprozil (97.8%) among the A. hydrophila isolates. Lower resistance to cefoxitin (30.3%), cefepime (30.3%), and ceftazidime (31.4%) were found. Cefazolin, cefuroxime, cefaclor, and cefoxitin resistance was found to be (100%) among the P. aeruginosa isolates. Moreover, resistance rates to cefprozil (98.9%), cefixime (96.6%), and ceftizoxime (85.2%) were detected. No isolates of P. aeruginosa were showed resistance to ceftazidime, cefepime and cefpirome. Multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) indexes ranged from 0.27 to 1.0 among A. hydrophila isolates and from 0.46 to 0.72 among P. aeruginosa isolates. All of the A. hydrophila and P. aeruginosa isolates showed resistance to cadmium. A. hydrophila and P. aeruginosa isolates showed low resistance to lead of 6.7% and 2.2% respectively. Results indicate that both species are easily recovered in hospital sewage and these species gained resistance to different generations of cephalosporins and heavy metals.