Enteric bacterial pathogens and their antibiotic‐resistant patterns from the environmental sources in different regions of Ethiopia: A laboratory‐based cross‐sectional study

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) resulting in the most significant public health and economic threat. Unfortunately, it is one of the missing topics on sustainable development goals (SDGs). Therefore, this laboratory‐based study aimed at determining enteric bacterial pathogens and their antibiotic‐resistant patterns from the environmental sources in different regions of Ethiopia. METHODS: A laboratory‐based cross‐sectional study was conducted by following the standard microbial culture and the Kirby‐Bauer disc diffusion method for identification and AMR patterns of the enteric bacteria using a total of 180 environmental samples from January through June 2020. We employed descriptive statistics to examine the prevalence rate, comparability of results, and summary of AMR patterns of enteric bacteria and a 95% confidence Interval (CI) for considering the statistical significance and give conclusions by using Stata 14.1. RESULTS: The mean prevalence rates (SD) at 95% CI of AMR enteric bacterial pathogens were 53.13 (2.51)% (52.31, 53.95), 45 (1.85)% (44.40, 45.60), 32.5 (3.01)% (31.10, 33.00), and 31.12 (1.95)% (30.80, 31.45) in Wastewaters, leachate from solid waste dumping sites, waste receiving water bodies (Lake Tana at Bahir Dar and Boye Wetland at Jimma), and Soils sequentially. Specifically, Escherichia coli, Shigella, and Salmonella were 90 (3.10)% (89.00, 91.10), 67.5 (2.58)% (66.72, 68.41), and 45(1.58)% (44.48, 45.52), respectively, investigated in wastewater. In addition, solid waste dumping sites were contaminated with E. coli 80 (3.97)% (79.34, 80.66), Shigella 61 (2.87)% (59.06, 60.94), and Salmonella 42 (5.67)% (40.15, 43.85). This study implies that the waste discharges are the main source of contamination for AMR pathogens to the two aquatic water bodies. CONCLUSION: The finding indicated that wastewater and solid waste dumping sites were important sources for AMR enteric pathogens. The finding might have indicated the tip of the iceberg about the environmental contamination with antimicrobial‐resistant enteric pathogens.