Multidrug resistance to antibiotics in Escherichia coli bacteria isolated from bats on Lombok Island, Indonesia

Wild animals such as bats usually do not receive antibiotic therapy, however bats can have bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics due to water contamination from pharmaceutical factory waste disposal, expired medicines that are thrown away carelessly, feces and urine that pollute the environment. This research aimed to look at cases of multidrug resistance (MDR) in bats on the island of Lombok, Indonesia. A total of 135 bat rectal swab samples were taken using sterile cotton buds. Isolation of E. coli bacteria using Eosin Methylene Blue Agar media then looking at morphology and biochemical tests. The bacterial sensitivity test used the disk diffusion method using seven antibiotics, namely the antibiotics amoxicillin, ciprofloxacine, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, gentamicin, cefotaxime and azithromycin. The research results showed that from 135 samples tested, 97 samples were positive for E. coli. Samples that were positive for E. coli were tested for sensitivity, showing that 41 (41/97, 42.26%) samples were still sensitive to all tested antibiotics and 56 samples experienced resistance with the results of samples experiencing resistance to the antibiotic azithromycin (AZM) as many as 40 samples ( 41.2%), amoxicillin (AML) 25 samples (25.7%), tetracycline (TE) 23 samples (23.7%), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (SXT) 21 samples (21.6%), ciprofloxacine (CIP) 14 samples (14.4%), gentamicin (CN) 1 sample (1%), and for cefotaxime (CTX) 0 samples experienced resistance (0%), and 15 samples experienced multidrug resistance. These results explain that bats in caves on the Indonesian island of Lombok act as transmitters of MDR E. coli to public health.