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.

Objective: Many reports of bacteriuria in domestic animals allude that animals may serve as hosts and means of spreading zoonotic pathogenic and multidrug-resistant bacteria via contamination of the environment with their urine. This cross-sectional study determined the bacterial load of urine from slaughtered cattle. It investigated the resistance to antimicrobials and pathogenicity potentials of the Gram-negative bacteria recovered from urine samples. Materials and Methods: Urine samples were obtained from 52 slaughtered cattle at the Wurukum Abattoir, Makurdi, Benue State, within a month. Standard microbiological procedures were used to process the samples for the isolation and identification of bacteria. Disc diffusion technique was used to determine the antibiogram of the isolates. Standard procedures also were deployed to examine the expression of virulence factors. Results: Bacteria were isolated from 20 of the 52 urine samples, with the positive samples yield¬ing total aerobic and coliform counts of 2.8 × 103 − 9.1 ×105 and 2.5 × 102 − 3.3 × 105 CFU/ml, respectively. Species of Gram-negative bacilli identified were Escherichia coli (n = 10), Tatumella ptyseous (n = 4), Acinetobacter baumannii (n = 2), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 1). The isolates were all resistant to at least three antimicrobial classes. All the isolates were resistant to the bac¬tericidal action of the serum, while 2 (11.8%) were hemolytic on blood agar. Conclusion: Adequate veterinary examination of slaughtered cattle before presenting for slaugh¬ter is imperative to reduce the contamination of the meat and environment with the urine of cattle with elevated levels of bacteriuria.