ResearchArticle Molecular Detection of Antibiotic-Resistant Genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Nonclinical Environment: Public Health Implications in Mthatha, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa Mojisola Clara Hosu , 1 Sandeep Vasaikar , 1,2 Grace Emily Okuthe , 3 and Teke Apalata 1,2 1 DivisionofMedicalMicrobiology,DepartmentofLaboratoryMedicineandPathology,FacultyofHealthSciences, WalterSisuluUniversity,PrivateBag:X1,Mthatha5117,EasternCape,SouthAfrica 2 NationalHealthLaboratoryServices(NHLS),NelsonMandelaAcademicHospital,Mthatha5100,SouthAfrica 3 DepartmentofBiologicalandEnvironmentalSciences,WalterSisuluUniversity,PrivateBag,X1,Mthatha5117, EasternCape,SouthAfrica Correspondence should be addressed to Teke Apalata; ruffinapalata@gmail.com Received 28 June 2020; Revised 25 October 2020; Accepted 26 December 2020; Published 5 January 2021 Academic Editor: Clemencia Chaves Lopez Copyright © 2021 Mojisola Clara Hosu et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Evaluation of resistant profiles and detection of antimicrobial-resistant genes of bacterial pathogens in the nonclinical milieu is imperative to assess the probable risk of dissemination of resistant genes in the environment. is paper sought to identify antibiotic-resistant genes in Pseudomonasaeruginosa from nonclinical sources in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, and evaluate its public health implications. Samples collected from abattoir wastewater and aquatic environment were processed by membrane filtration and cultured on CHROMagarTM Pseudomonas medium. Species identification was performed by autoSCAN-4 (Dade Behring Inc., IL). Molecular characterization of the isolates was confirmed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (rPCR) and selected isolates were further screened for the possibility of harboring antimicrobial resistance genes. Fifty-one Pseudomonas species were recovered from abattoir wastewater and surface water samples, out of which thirty-six strains were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (70.6%). e P. aeruginosa isolates demonstrated resistance to aztreonam (86.1%), ceftazidime (63.9%), piperacillin (58.3%), cefepime (55.6%), imipenem (50%), piperacillin/tazobactam (47.2%), meropenem (41.7%), and levofloxacin (30.6%). Twenty out of thirty-six P.aeruginosa displayed multidrug resistance profiles and were classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR) (55.6%). Most of the bacterial isolates exhibited a high Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) Index ranging from 0.08 to 0.69 with a mean MAR index of 0.38. In the rPCR analysis of fifteen P. aeruginosa isolates, 14 isolates (93.3%) were detected harboring bla SHV , six isolates (40%) harbored bla TEM , and three isolates (20%) harbored bla CTX-M, being the least occurring ESBL. Results of the current study revealed that P.aeruginosa isolates recovered from nonclinical milieu are resistant to frontline clinically relevant antipseudomonal drugs. is is concerning as it poses a risk to the environment and constitutes a public health threat. Given the public health relevance, the paper recommends monitoring of multidrug-resistant pathogens in effluent environments. 1. Introduction Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a public health crisis in both human and veterinary medicine [1, 2]. e irrational use of antibiotics in both human medicine and animal production for growth-promoting purposes, metaphylaxis, and prophylaxis has fueled the proliferation and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes resulting in aggravated public health and environmental risks [3–5]. e threat posed by AMR to human health is particularly concerning in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). is is due to the higher possibility of community-acquired Hindawi International Journal of Microbiology Volume 2021, Article ID 8861074, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8861074