Heavy metal and drug resistant bacteria in the Vellar Estuary, southeast coast of India

Abstract

A total of 150 strains of heterotrophic bacteria were isolated from the water and sediment samples of Vellar Estuary, Tamil Nadu, India. These were tested for their heavy metal and drug resistances. Results showed that copper resistant forms were high 88.6%) followed by cadmium, zinc, iron and mercury. The resistant pattern for drugs was found to be penicillin ampicillin kanamycin streptomycin polymyxin-B. It may be concluded from the results that the endemic micro-organisms play a unique role in maintaining the pollution level