Characteristics of antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli from animals: relationship to veterinary and management uses of antimicrobial agents.

Five-hundred fifty-five (555) isolates of Escherichia coli were obtained from fecal specimens of a representative number of animals from five farms in the United States. Antibiotic exposure of the selected herds was determined by an epidemiological survey of these farms. The incidence of multiple resistance in the E. coli isolates was higher in herds exposed to continuous feeding of antimicrobial agents (84.8%) than in a herd not receiving antimicrobials (15.7%). The most common resistance configuration observed was the triple pattern of dihydrostreptomycin (DS), sulfonamide (SU), and tetracycline (TE). The second most frequent pattern consisted of four resistances: ampicillin (AM), DS, SU, and TE. The frequency of transfer factors was much higher in multiply resistant organisms from the herds exposed to antimicrobial medicaments. The E. coli isolates were relatively efficient in fostering and transferring heterologous resistance factors. AM resistance factors occurred more frequently in herds which were exposed to feed levels of penicillin (27.9%) than in those that were not (6.4%).