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Plastic pollution is now an emerging issue worldwide and the number of plastic debris is rapidly increasing day by day in this decades. The surface of plastic is a rich source of biofilm-forming microorganisms that can pose a risk to human health. Studies showed that Escherichia coli is resistant to numerous classes of antibiotics, however, the prevalence of the bacterium on the environmental plastic surface is still unknown. The current study aimed at identifying biofilm-
forming E. coli from the plastic surface collected from various environmental origins and distributing the antibiotic-resistant pattern. A total of 90 plastic samples were collected from
wastewater and open surface environments of Mymensingh Medical College, Bangladesh Agricultural University, and BCIC industrial areas of Mymensingh. Among these 65 samples were found to be positive for the presence of E. coli. The plastic samples collected from drainage
sources displayed the highest E. coli prevalence. By targeting the mal B gene of the cultured samples, 36 E. coli isolates were positive out of 65, and the prevalence rate was 55.38%. There was a considerable variation in terms of the antibiotic-resistant pattern of the isolates. Randomly, 29 isolates were subjected to antibiogram study. All of the isolates were resistant to imipenam and ceftazidime, 79.40% were resistant to ampicillin and 44.82% resistant to gentamicin. The
beta-lactamase-producing genes blaTEM were detected in 51% (14/29) isolates that showed resistance to ampicillin. The biofilm-forming study revealed that 91.16% strong biofilm-forming E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin. Additionally, 18.18% non-biofilm-forming
tetracycline-resistant E. coli isolates have been found in this study. In summary, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in Bangladesh to isolate and identify biofilm forming
antibiotic resistant E. coli collected from environmental plastic surfaces, but further pathogenicity tests and resistome analysis are required to know the exact genetic resistance pattern.
