ABSTRACT
This study aims to determine the effectiveness of some of the commonly used antibiotics in management of bacterial wilt in plants caused by enterobacterial strains. The enterobacterial strains were isolated from wilt infected vegetable crops and weeds. Agar diffusion method was used to determine the growth inhibition caused by the drugs streptomycin, tetracycline and terramycin following the MIC parameters. It was observed that about 85% of the pathogenic Enterobacterial strains were resistant to one of the antibiotics (streptomycin) and about 27% showed resistance to more than two drugs. Statistical interpretation of the data using F Test showed that out of the three drugs, terramycin and tetracycline performed significantly better than streptomycin but the effectiveness of tetracycline and terramycin were comparable. Kendell’s Test was done to see if there was a correlation between virulence of the bacterial strains and their resistance to antibiotics. The result showed that bacteria that were found to be more virulent on tomato and brinjal were also more resistant to the three antibiotics tested on them.
