Antibiotic Resistance of Clostridium Perfringens Isolated from Raw Camel Milk in Isiolo County, Kenya

Clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive, anaerobic, motile rod spore forming bacteria.It causes food poisoning and spoilages in milk and milk products.The camel husbandry and health management practices in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) of Kenya increase the possibility of contamination, transmission, and development of antibiotic resistance zoonotic organisms.Therefore, the objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of antibiotic resistant Cl. perfringens strains in camel milk in Isiolo County, Kenya.A total of 308 raw camel milk were aseptically harvested from randomly selected camels from 15 herds along selected camel milk clusters in Isiolo County.48.05% (148/308) of all the sampled camel milk were positive for Clostridium species and out of the 148 samples that were positive for Clostridium species, 19.1% (59/148) were positive for Cl.perfringens.Out of the 59 isolates that were confirmed as Cl.perfringens, the isolates that were resistant to tested antibiotics, in decreasing order, were ampicillin (61.02%),Sulphamethazole (47.46%),Cotrimazole (45.76%),Streptomycin (44.07%),Chloramphenicol (42.37%),Kanamycin (40.68%),Tetracycline (37.29%), and Gentamycin (35.59%).Therefore, these findings established contamination of raw camel milk with Cl. perfringens characterized with antibiotics resistance capabilities posing a health risk to the local communities that consume the unpasteurized camel milk.