The evaluation of the classical Kirby-Bauer antibiogram method for the determination of antibiotic resistant microorganisms in tap water

Abstract

Abstract. Water supply systems are the main source of potable water for many inhabitants. The European Union and Polish laws demand high quality of tap water, but the aspect of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) is not mentioned. The special emphasis is placed on the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in water, determining by the presence of chosen indicators. Although these regulations provide quite good quality of drinking water, the neglect of resistance vectors could lead to a serious threat to human health. In this study the randomly chosen sample of water from the Wroclaw water supply system was tested in order to evaluate the usefulness of Kirby-Bauer antibiogram method for the assessment of the presence of ARB. The susceptibility testing with 6 chosen antibiotics was performed on bacterial strains isolated from the sample. The diameters of growth inhibition zones were measured and the preliminary identification of strains was carried out, including Gram staining and bacterial cellular morphologies assessments. Although full recognition of the drug resistance phenomenon demands the identification of bacterial species for the comparison with susceptibility testing guidelines, this preliminary research could answer the question, whether the Kirby-Bauer method is sufficient for investigations of ARB dwelling in Wroclaw tap water or the other solution should be applied.

Physical and biological properties of blend‐electrospun polycaprolactone/chitosan‐based wound dressings loaded with N‐decyl‐N, N‐dimethyl‐1‐decanaminium chloride: An in vitro and in vivo study

“…Antibacterial activity of the prepared nanofibrous mats (CS/PEO‐PCL/DDAC [0, 1, and 8%]) were studied using the Disc diffusion test (Kirby Bauer method; Siedlecka & Piekarska, 2017). To perform this procedure, bacterial suspensions were prepared from colonies of E. coli ATCC 25922 and S. aureus ATCC29212 equivalent to 0.5 McFarland.…”

The occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes in tap water – a review

“…Furthermore, the routinely applied method for detection of ARB, i.e. Kirby-Bauer discdiffusion method, is dedicated to human or animal pathogens, which present diverse optimum condition (temperature 35 o C and rich nutrient medium like Mueller-Hinton agar) [32] than autochthonous tap water microorganism (which are psychrophilic and accustomed to habitats poor in nutrients) [33,34]. Therefore, the other way to investigate the antibiotic resistance phenomenon is needed and the detection of ARGs seems to be an appropriate solution.…”