Detection of antibiotic resistant bacteria and sterol concentration in hand dug wells cited near pit latrine in Southwestern Nigeria

Provision of safe water and improvement in sanitation has led to a reduction in occurrence of diseases, especially water borne diseases but citing of pit latrine near these wells can be of health concern. Assessment of microbiological quality, feacal sterol concentration and antibiotic resistant pattern of isolated bacteria from hand dug well in Oko, Nigeria were carried out during dry and rainy seasons using standard methods. A total of thirty-one and twenty-nine organisms were isolated during rainy and dry seasons, respectively. The total heterotrophic count of the water samples for dry and rainy seasons ranged from 1.14 to 5.53×105 Cfu/100 mL and 0.54 to 7.06×105 Cfu/100 mL respectively, while total enterobacteriaceae count ranged between 1.18 to 4.62×105 Cfu/100 mL and 4.58 to 14.1×105 Cfu/100 mL during dry and rainy season, respectively. All the isolates showed multiple antibiotics resistant (MAR) to the eleven antibiotics used in this study. U.V spectrophotometric analysis revealed the concentrations of coprostanol to be within the range of 1.654 to 2.676 abs which is an indication of contamination from human feacal sources. There was a significant relationship between the resistant pattern of both Cephalosporin and Penicillin classes of antibiotics, a justification from heavy pollution and possession of multidrug (commonly used antibiotics) resistant organisms of the studied well water samples, these calls for a major concern of public health workers.   Key words: Water, antibiotic, resistant, Enterobacteriaceae, sterol.