Adv. Pharmacol. Toxicol.

13 (3) 2012, 13-15

ISSN - 0973 - 2381
ANTIBIOGRAM OF STREPTOCOCCUS SPP. ISOLATES IN
UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT AND SKIN SAMPLE OF
EQUINES
Dau Lal Bohra*, C K Bahura* and S. K. Kashyap**
* P.G Department of Zoology, Govt. Dungar college, BIKANER (Rajsthan)
**Department of veterinary Microbiology and Biotechnology, CVAS, BIKANER-334001,
Rajasthan, India

The antibiogram observed against 163 coagulate negative streptococcus

spp. isolates (Streptococcus equi 42.94%, followed by Streptococcus
zooepidemicus 32.51%, Streptococcus pyogenes 13.49%, Streptococcus
pneumoniae 9.20% and Streptococcus mitis 1.84% form normal stage) and
revealed that Streptomycin was the most effective antibiotic against all the
isolates from horse and donkey. The highest resistance Streptomycin (100%)
and Ampicillin (100%) was shown towards cefixime followed by Kanamycin
(90%), Cephalexin (85%), Vancomycin (80%), Penicillin G (75%) and
Tetracycline (60%). In antibiogram no difference or resistance pattern was
observed against isolates from horses and donkeys.
INTRODUCTION
Streptococcus spp. has been demonstrated as the most important agents in the URT
infections in equines. Antibiotic resistance of this organism is of remarkable proficiency and
hence the infection with streptococcus spp. responds poorly to therapy with antimicrobials,
whether given parenterally or via the air contamination in winter time. Therefore,
establishing an antibiogram of stain is very important in stream desert area form the clinical
and economical point of view (Moon et al., 2007). The present investigation was undertaken
with the objective of knowing of antibiotic effective against Streptococcus zooepidemicus,
St. pyogenes, St. pneumoniae and St. mitis as opportunistic pathogens.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
URT and skin swab sample collected in 5 ml nutrient broth medium, there were 163
streptococci, which were subjected to secondary biochemical test viz. sugar fermentation
test on different sugar, activity on litmus milk, hemolysis on blood agar and growth on 6.5%
Nacl. The isolates were inoculated in sterile 5ml nutrient broth tube, incubated for 18hr at
0
37 C. The optical was adjusted to 0.5 Mcfarland opacity standards (Quinn et al., 1994). The
method of Baure et al. (1966) was followed to determine the antibiogram for these isolates
* Corresponding Author

14
Bohra et al.
against 7 different antibiotics like as Ampicillin (A), Cephalexin (Cp), Kanamycin (K),
Penicillin G (P), Streptomycin (St), Tetracycline (T) and Vancomycin (Va).
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The results were interpreted as per the literature supplied by the antibiotic
manufacturer. The response of stains against different antibiotics was characterized as
sensitive (S), intermediate (I) and resistant (R). Maximum percentage of isolates were found
to be Streptococcus equi (41.9%), followed by Streptococcus zooepidemicus (31.17%), St.
pyogenes (13.17%), St. pneumoniae (8.98%) and St. mitis (1.91%) respectively.
Out of the 7 antibiotics, only Streptomycin, Ampicillin was found effective against
all the Streptococcus equi, Cephalexin (92.9%), Kanamycin (87.1%), Penicillin G (88.6%),
Tetracycline (70%) and Vancomycin (85.7%) respectively. The efficiency of streptomycin is
in agreement with the observation of many earlier workers (Fey and Schmid, 1995),
(Fuhrmann and Lammler, 1997), who recorded the effectiveness of the antibiotics against
most of the S. equi isolates in their studies. Most of St. pyogenes 90.9% were sensitive toward
Ampicillin, similarly Penicillin was also most of sensitive for Streptococcus zooepidemicus,
St. pyogenes and St. pneumoniae (range-90.9% to 94.3%). Streptococcus zooepidemicus, St.
pyogenes showed similar results for Tetracycline resistance. In other aspect, St. pyogenes
(27.3%) shows intermediate sensitive.
Development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria is a cause of concern
infectious diseases that were once easily treated with antibiotics now often are refectory to
the treatment. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is transmissible from one generation to next
and even across the species. Human and animals are integral component of eco-biosyster that
necessitate periodical screening of commensal organism for monitoring emergence and
spared of antibiotic resistance. Gottfried (1999) observed sensitivity of Streptococcus
pneumoniae to Gatifloxacin, Vancomycin and Levofloxacin while lesser sensitive to
Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter spp.
The variable antibiograme result for different antibiotics makes it difficult to recommend
any single antibiotics for control of URT and skin infection. In this situation, it is beneficial to
use combination of different antibiotics for which several rationales have been forth
including decreased emergence of resistance in pathogens, decreased toxicity due to
lowering of dose and complementary spectrum for use in polymicrbial infection, and
antimicrobial synergism (Eliopoulos and Moellering, 1996).
Since antibiotic resistance emerges on the use of certain antibiotic in a particular species,
thus antibiotic resistance profile depends upon geographic area and also in relation to time.
There are no reports available regarding determination of antibiotic resistance in equine
commensally bacteria of Bikaner region. But some reports are available in other animals.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors are thankful to Principle, Dungar College, Bikaner, to provide support
conduct this research work.

Antibiogram of Streptococcus Spp. Isolates

Table 1: Effect on Antibiogram of Streptococcus spp. isolates

15

S- Sensitive, I-Intermediate, R-Resistant

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