Abstract

and community-acquired infections. It has been reported that the clinical isolates of P.
aeruginosa are difficult to treat because of their virulence factors and antibiotics resistances.
The aim of present study was to screen the antibiotic resistance patterns and the prevalence
of virulence factor genes in a set of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from Ogbomoso, and
to determine whether a correlation exists between the prevalence of virulence factors and
antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa. A total of 100 P. aeruginosa isolates were collected
from various types of clinical specimens. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed
using the Kirby-bauer method. In addition, PCR assays were used for screening four virulence
encoding genes (OPRL, LasB, PLCH and ToxA). The results showed that OPRL (79%) and LasB
(62%) were the most frequent virulence genes in P. aeruginosa strains, followed by PLCH (41%)
and ToxA (35%). The highest resistance was detected towards Piperacillin (42%) and
Tetracycline (42%). Moderate rate of resistance (12-39%) were detected towards the other
antibiotics. The virulent factors identified in this study provide valuable information
regarding the prevalence of resistance genes of P. aeruginosa isolates in Ogbomoso, Nigeria
and their potential impact on treatments that exploit the unique physiology of the pathogen.
This will be useful for the health workers to improve infection control measures and to
establish a surveillance system.