Prevalence of Corynebacterium species among Slaughtered Ruminants in Makurdi, Nigeria: A Preliminary Study

Non-diphtheritic Corynebacteria have in recent times been increasingly implicated as the causative agents of various infections in humans and animals. They have also been shown to be an emerging group of multidrug-resistant bacteria. In the present study, we carried out a preliminary investigation to assess the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of species of corynebacteria among slaughtered cattle, goats and sheep. Nasal swabs from 207 ruminants (101 goats, 91 cattle, and 15 sheep) were processed for isolation and identification of corynebacteria using standard microbiological procedures. Antibiogram of the isolates was also determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. Twenty-three isolates (11.1%) distributed into six species comprising Corynebacterium xerosis (n=8), C. amycolatum (n=5) C. mycetoides (n=3) C. stationis (n=2) C. striatum (n=1) and C. efficiens (n=1) were recovered. The Corynebacterium isolates displayed high rates of resistance (31.6 – 100%) to all the antibiotics tested with multidrug resistance observed in 78.9% (15/23) of the isolates tested. Coagulase-production was also observed among 8 (34.8%) of the isolates. Our findings highlight the role of slaughtered cattle and small ruminants as potential reservoirs of multidrug resistant and zoonotic non-diphtheritic corynebacteria and thus a need for increased surveillance and characterization of this bacteria group among animals.