Ethical approval was sought for and the authors ensured that all procedures performed during the studies were in accordance with the guidelines of the Ethics committee of the University of Fort Hare. The journal implements double-blind peer review practiced by specially invited international editorial board members. 10]. To meet the high demand of animal products, most modern intensive production systems use antibiotics for therapy, control and prevention of diseases and as growth promoters in

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... nimals. This practice has been shown to lead to the emergence of resistant bacteria. Therefore, it may not be strange to observe similar antibiotic resistance profiles of bacteria isolates from humans and farm animals that are regularly treated with clinically relevant antibiotics[10]. A RT I C L E I N F O A B S T R AC T Objective: To conduct antimicrobial resistance profile of Escherichia coli (E. coli) serogroups isolated from swine that are regularly exposed to clinically important antibiotics in the farms, calculate multiple antibiotic resistance index and determine the presence of resistance determinants. Methods: Identification of the E. coli isolates (n = 169), delineation into serogroups, and resistance genes determination were done using PCR technique. Antibiotic susceptibility testing against 16 antibiotics was done using the disk diffusion method. Results: The susceptibility test showed that most of the isolates were highly resistant to tetracycline (long-acting counterpart), oxytetracycline and also to ampicillin (84%-100%). On the other hand, a relatively high susceptibility to norfloxacin (83%-100%), ciprofloxacin (63%-100%), gentamicin (77%-100%), and chloramphenicol (77%-100%) was observed among the isolates. The multiple antibiotic resistance indices ranged from 0.2 to 0.7 while genes encoding resistances to tetracycline, streptomycin and ampicillin were detected in 48%, 22%, and 78% of all the E. coli isolates, respectively. Conclusions: Findings from this study revealed that swine from this area can be reservoirs of multiple antibiotic resistances. There is need for regular surveillance of antimicrobial usage in swine industries and the use of sub-therapeutic doses of these agents should be discouraged.