Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance among Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex Species from Camel Milk in Isiolo County, Kenya

The rising levels of antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens is a major global concern of human and animal health. This has been attributed to unauthorized use of therapeutic drugs in livestock, a situation which is worse in pastoral system, which may result in residual antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistance in animal based-food such as milk, meat, eggs and fish. In Kenya, however, there is no formal surveillance system for drug resistance among livestock and human bacterial isolates. Therefore, there is limited data on prevalence of multi-drug resistant zoonotic diseases due to consumption of animal based foods. The aim of this study was to determine presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) species and multi-antibiotic resistant MTBC species in camel milk in Isiolo County, Kenya. Raw camel milk was aseptically collected from 308 positive, negative and inconclusive bovine reactor , and positive avian reactor camels randomly selected from 15 camel herds in 3 major camel producing milk clusters in Isiolo County, Kenya. DNA was extracted directly from raw camel milk samples. A first single step Polymerase Chain Reaction  (PCR) using primer set MTB-F 5'-CGGGTATGCTGTTAGGCGACG-3' and MTB-R 5'CCACCACAAGACATGCATG-3' was done to determine presence of MTBC species in camel milk samples. A second single step PCR using primer set RF1 5’-GGTCGCCGCGATCAAGGAGT-3’ and RF2 5’TGCACGTCGCGGACCTCCA-3’, targeting the rpoB gene, a marker of multi-drug resistant TB, was done to determine presence of multi-drug resistant MTBC species. The prevalence of MTBC species and multi-drug resistant MTBC species in raw camel milk was 3.1% and 1.55%, respectively. The presence of MTBC species and multi-drug resistant MTBC species in raw camel milk should be major public health concern to veterinary and human health medical services; especially among pastoralists who are traditionally accustomed to consuming raw camel milk.