Identification and antibiotic resistance profile of Coagulase-negative Staphylococci from broiler and layer chickens from markets in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Chicken is a better protein source for health than red meat. However, consumption of chicken meat has resulted to food poisoning due opportunistic coagulase –negative staphylococci. Treatment failure has increase due antibiotic resistance cause by misused of antibiotics meant for human consumption in poultry farming. This study aimed to identify and assess antibiotic resistance pattern of CoNS in broiler and layer chickens sold in the local markets of Yaoundé. From three Yaoundé markets, 38 chickens were purchased and subsequently euthanatized at the Food and Drug Safety Research Laboratory. The anatomical sites were used for bacteria isolation. Bacterial isolates were identified using the Gram-positive in vitro test kit cards of the VITEK® 2 systems, and antibiotic susceptibility testing was conducted using AST-P580 test cards. 63.16% (24/38) chickens were infected with 39 CoNS, including: Staphylococcus sciuri (79.5%), S. cohnii sbsp. urealyticus (10.2%), S. equorum (7.7%) and S. klossi (2.6%). S. sciuri strains were resistant to fusidic acid (19.4%), moxifloxacin (16.1%), clindamycin (12.9%), and oxyacillin (6.45%). S. cohnii sbsp. urealyticus strains were resistant to Tetracycline (100%), Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (75%), Oxacillin (25%), Fusidic acid (25%), and Cefoxitin screen (100%). Some strains of S. sciuri and S. cohnii sbsp. urealyticus showed multi-drug resistant patterns. Our study revealed that S. sciuri and S. cohnii sbsp. urealyticus are common in layers and broilers in Yaoundé and they exhibited phenotypic antibiotic resistance. It implies that CoNS may be able to act as both resistance monitoring sentinels and reservoirs of resistance genes that can be transferred on to other pathogens.