Antimicrobial resistant coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus from chickens in Maiduguri,Nigeria

Staphylococcus aureus is an Important agent of food poisoning. In many countries, it is the main bacterial organism responsible for diseases caused by exotoxin production and direct invasion with systemic dissemination. In poultry, S. aureus is associated with many clinical syndromes including tenosynovitis, omphalitis, femoral head necrosis, infected hock and stifle joints secondary to coccidiosis and “bumblefoot”. A total of 100 tracheal swabs from 100 apparently healthy chickens from small holder flocks in Maiduguri, Nigeria were analysed for the presence of S. aureus. Isolates of coagulase positive S. aureus resistance to 10 antimicrobials was determined by disc diffusion method. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 83 (83.0%) and coagulase positive S. aureus from 54 (54%) of all samples. Isolates of coagulase positive S. aureus were completely (100%) susceptible to cephalexin, ciprofloxacin and gentamycin but showed varying degrees of resistance to ampicillin (100%), erythromycin (100%), ceftriazone (57.4%), ofloxacin (57.4%), clindamycin (51.9%), cotrimoxazole (50.0%) and augmentin (33.3%).