Different rates of resistance were recorded for the various antibiotics tested and full correlation between phenotypes and genotypic traits of resistance to the antibiotics was found. Erythromycin resistance in

staphylococci has been reported to be predominantly mediated by erythromycin-resistant methylase encoded by the erm genes [6, 23], namely erm(A), erm(B) and erm(C). erm(A) is found on the transposon Tn554 with a single specific site for insertion into the S. aureus chromosome while erm(B) gene is found on the transposon Tn551 of a penicillinase plasmid. The erm(C) gene on the other hand is responsible for constitutive S63845 manufacturer or inducible resistance to erythromycin and is generally located on small plasmids [5, 6, 23]. This indicates the high capacity A-1210477 mw of these genes to be horizontally transferred to recipient strains. Our study showed that 4 (S. epidermidis 2, S. haemolyticus 1, S. cohnii 1) out of 5 erythromycin resistant isolates possessed erm(C) genes. The erm(A) and erm(B) genes were absent. Studies conducted in other countries such as Italy, Denmark, and Tunisia also reported erm(C) as the prevalent gene in clinical isolates of erythromycin resistant S. epidermidis[7,

23, 24]. One of the erythromycin resistant S. haemolyticus strain was found to possess the msr(A) gene which encodes an ATP-dependent efflux pump conferring resistance to 14- and 15-membered macrolides [5]. Six of the tetracycline resistant strains (3 S. haemolyticus, 1 S. capitis, 1 S. xylosus, and one S. cohnii ) were also found to possess the

tet(K) gene which encodes for an efflux mechanism of resistance. The presence of these efflux pumps in the CoNS strains from stool samples may contribute to the increase in incidence of resistance to other antimicrobial agents that are targeted by these ASK1 efflux pumps, such as some antiseptics and disinfectants. The overall prevalence of tetracycline resistance is noteworthy and may reflect the overuse of different tetracyclines in the study area. Despite the fact that tetracycline is not officially recommended for children in the study area, tetracycline capsules are widely available in all stores in Nigeria and it is one of the most used drugs in this country. On the other hand, co-trimoxazole was the first line oral antibiotic recommended by World Health Organisation’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) for the treatment of local bacterial infection in the infant and thus it is widely prescribed by many physicians and is often used as a prophylaxis in many diseases in the study area. Hence the high resistance rate obtained for it may not be out of place. The same applies to amoxicillin-clavulanate which are often prescribed instead of β-lactamase susceptible CA-4948 price penicillins in the study area.