## 4 Discussion
Hence, the costlier or expensive antibiotics are rarely used injudiciously as [PERSON] [53] noted that commonly used antibiotics are inexpensive. Therefore, we concluded that ciprofloxacin and gentamicin were the most effective antibiotics in the control of the bacteria in this study. Consequently, a general or pre-knowledge of the anticipated susceptibility profile of these bacteria to a range of available antibiotics is a prerequisite to the commencement of treatment with an appropriate antibiotic [54]. [PERSON] et al. [55] termed a bacterial strain presenting with a resistant phenotype in \(\geq 3\) antibiotics as multidrug resistant. Also, the MAR index has been employed extensively, in several environments to classify multidrug-resistant organisms. Of the 83 isolates recovered, 40 (48.19%) bacterial isolates demonstrated resistance to three and more antibiotics (MAR \(>\) 0.2); thus,these were described as multidrug-resistant bacterial enteropathogens. Only one bacterial isolate (_Camylobacter_ sp.) demonstrated resistance to all the 10 antibiotics. The said isolate is a host to many antibiotic-resistance genes and, thus, can serve as a reservoir to disseminate resistance genes via lateral gene transfer to other pathogenic, environmental species and commensal bacteria thus causing the spread and rise of antibiotic resistance [56] which in turn presents with ecological and public health implications. Besides, [PERSON] [57] highlighted that a calculated value of MAR index >0.25 poses a high risk contamination and the isolate recorded a MAR index of 1; hence, it is a threat as it can cause cross resistance to other antibiotics in circumstances where the antibiotics employed share the same mode of actions as well as it might cause difficult to treat infections [58]. Approximately 48% frequency of MAR > 0.2 among the bacterial isolates recovered from the digesting substrate (dairy cattle manure) in an anaerobic digester highlighted that the discharged effluent from the bio-digester may serve as a plausible environmental reservoir of antibiotic-resistance genes [31]. This imposes the implementation of other treatment methods for the post-treatment of the anaerobically treated effluent to ensure microbiological safety. Moreover, from Table 3, the high frequency of MAR > 0.2 observed in, _Shigella_ sp. (75%), _Campylobacter_ sp. (68.75%) and _Salmonella_ sp. (57.78%) suggested that these microorganisms have been exposed to erythromycin, amoxicillin, tetracycline and co-trimoxazole which are antibiotics employed as feed additives, prophylactics or therapeutics in cattle farms; hence, this reflected a microbial adaptive response [59]. In the present study, 28 antibiotic-resistance phenotypes were represented as shown in Table 4. This indicated a wide diversity of resistance which might persist in the environment and proliferate, thus creating great chances for the spread of resistance genes via horizontal or lateral gene transfer causing negative influences on human and animal antibiotic chemotherapy [60]. The findings corroborate those of [PERSON] et al. [61] where 21 antibiotic-resistance patterns were elucidated. However, the overall predominant phenotypes were AP-A-GM-E-AUG, A-E-AP and A-E-TS added to C-T-E resistance patterns observed in _Salmonella_ and _E. coli_ species, respectively. In summary, the aforementioned bacterial enteropathogens are responsible for gastrointestinal diseases in humans. Diarrhoea is attributed to inadequate sanitation and hygiene, a situation very common in Sub-Saharan African regions and the second-highest cause of death among children less than five years of age. Therefore, in developing countries e.g., South Africa, where sanitation is poor and the rate of diarrhoeal diseases is at its optimum, antimicrobial resistance in enteropathogens (enteric pathogens) is vital. More especially, the continuous rise in antimicrobial resistance among these enteropathogens in the aforesaid countries is becoming a critical area of concern.