Antibiogram and Plasmid Profile analysis of Bacterial Strains from Diabetic Skin Ulcers

*Rachel Obhade OKOJIE and Peace Oghaleoghene OKOTIE

Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City,
Nigeria

Corresponding Author: rachel.okojie@uniben.edu doi.org/10.55639/607ponm


ABSTRACT

A diabetic skin ulcer (DSU) is an injury found on the skin of
diabetics which affects both the surface and deeper tissue of the
skin leading to disintegration. Infections on diabetic skin ulcers are
usually caused by an array of bacterial strains; therefore,
appropriate management of the infections involves choosing the
appropriate antibiotics to treat the wounds. Swabs samples from
the wounds were collected using swab sticks. The isolates were
cultured using standard microbiological techniques. Antibiotics
susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was determined using the
modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The multidrugresistant bacteria were subjected to plasmid profiling and curing to
determine if the resistances displayed were plasmid or
chromosomally mediated. The Gram-positive bacteria showed
the highest susceptibility to gentamycin (71.33 %) and were least
sensitive to amoxicillin (21.11 %); while the Gram-negative
bacteria showed the highest susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (78.83
%) and were least susceptible to augmentin (26.08 %).
Staphylococcus aureus, Alcaligenes faecalis and Acinetobactersp.
lost their antibiotic-resistant plasmid markers after acridine orange
mediated curing while E. coli and K. pneumoniae retained their
markers.

Keywords:

antibiotic susceptibility,
bacterial strains,
curing,
diabetic skin ulcer