Surveillance of bacterial contamination of fomites in Tamale Veterinary Clinic... Adzitey et. al. SURVEILLANCE OF BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION OF FOMITES IN TAMALE VETERINARY CLINIC WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE OF ESCHERICHIA COLI AND STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS Adzitey, F., 1,2 Bukari, R. 2 and Ayamdoh, Y.I. 3 1 Department of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University for Development Studies, P.O. Box TL 1882, Tamale, Ghana 2 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University for Development Studies, P.O. Box TL 1882, Tamale, Ghana 3 Tamale Metro Veterinary Clinic, P. O. Box 241, Tamale, Ghana ABSTRACT Actively used fomites in veterinary clinics can play an important role in the transmission of bacte- ria and the dissemination of infectious diseases. In many veterinary clinics in Ghana, information about bacterial contamination of fomites and their resistance to antibiotics is scare. This study determined bacterial contamination of some actively used fomites in the Tamale Veterinary Clinic in the Northern Region of Ghana; and the antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli and Staphylo- coccus aureus isolated from these fomites. The fomite samples (n=5 each) examined were burdiz- zo, doorknob, drawer handle, fridge handle, hoof cutter, ice chest, kidney bowl, mobile phone, muzzle, pen, record book, surgical instrument, surgical table, switch and vial. These items were sampled randomly within a four-month period. The convectional and the disk diffusion methods were used for the isolation and antibiotic resistance, respectively. Aerobic plate counts indicated that, muzzle (4.9 log cfu/cm 2 ) and pen (3.14 log cfu/cm 2 ) had the highest and lowest level of bacte- rial contamination, respectively. Out of the 75 fomites examined, 12% (9) were positive for Esche- richia coli, 10.7% (8) were positive for Staphylococcus aureus and none was positive for Salmonel- la enterica. The 9 Escherichia coli tested against eight (8) different antibiotics revealed a high resistance to erythromycin (88.89%). The 8 Staphylococcus aureus isolates were resistant to ampi- cillin (50%) and erythromycin (50%). Two each of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus exhibited multidrug resistance. The resistant pattern of erythromycin for Escherichia coli, and erythromycin and ampicillin for Staphylococcus aureus were the most common. Multiple antibi- otic index (MAR index) ranged from 0.13 to 0.38 for the Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus au- reus isolates. In conclusion, every single fomite sampled was contaminated with bacteria. Conse- quently, frequent cleaning of fomites should be adhered to and workers should be more hygiene conscious to prevent self or cross bacterial infection. Keywords: Antimicrobial, Microbial, Contamination, Fomites, Veterinary INTRODUCTION Contact is one of the most common modes of transmission of microorganisms. Pathogenic microorganisms can be spread through direct physical contact among animals, people or through contact with contaminated inanimate objects (fomites) and surfaces. Numerous studies have demonstrated that contaminated fomites play a role in the spread of bacteria and infec- tious diseases (Rusin et al., 2002; Reynolds et 130 Ghanaian Journal of Animal Science, Vol. 10 No.1, 2019