Abstract:
Indigenous chicken production in most African countries including Kenya is traditionally based on
free feed resources available in the surrounding environment. There is high risk of zoonosis that
could be an important source of enteric pathogens that can be transmitted to humans via
horizontal gene transfer. The chicken that are considered healthy apparently can shed enteric
pathogens that are associated with antimicrobial resistance. The purpose of this study was to
isolate and characterize the diverse bacteria present in chicken droppings and to evaluate their
antimicrobial resistance this was achieved by collecting chicken droppings from a poultry farm in
Juja followed by culturing and sub-culturing to obtain diverse bacteria colonies. Characterization
of these bacteria was done using gram staining and various biochemical tests. Antibiotic
susceptibility test was carried out in order to evaluate the antimicrobial resistant profiles of the
diverse bacteria present in the chicken droppings. Five antibiotics belonging to different classes
were used namely; tetracycline, amoxicillin norfloxacin, erythromycin and cefotaxime were used.
Salmonella spp, E. coli, Campylobacter, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus and Bacillus spp were the most
dominant bacteria isolated the chicken droppings. The isolated bacteria were resistant to
different classes of antibiotics such as oxytetracycline (30µg class tetracycline), norfloxacin class
(10µg class quinolone) cefotaxime(25µg class cephalosporin) and erythromycin(25µg class
macrolide). This study provides meaningful information and foundation on diverse bacteria
present in chicken droppings and their resistance profiles, in order to understand consequences
of sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics for growth promotion rather than treatment.
