TITLE:
Occurrence of Escherichia coli O157 in Retailed-Beef and Related Meat Products in Zaria, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Salome Y. Tafida, Jacob K. P. Kwaga, Mohammed Bello, Junaidu Kabir, Veronica J. Umoh, Sabo E. Yakubu, Andrew J. Nok
KEYWORDS:
E. coli O157; Meat Products; Multiple Drug Resistance; Food Safety
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.5 No.6,
March
7,
2014
ABSTRACT:
This study
evaluated retailed-beef and related meat products for E. coli O157 in Zaria, Nigeria. Sample types included raw meat, “suya”
(roasted meat), “balangu” (barbequed meat), “kilishi” (spiced sun dried meat)
and “dambu” (shredded fried meat). A total of 182 samples were analyzed for E. coli O157. Isolates were
characterized using conventional biochemical methods and Microbact 12E test
kit. Susceptibilities of the isolates to 18 commonly used antimicrobial agents
were determined by the disk diffusion method. The carriage of stx1 and stx2 genes was determined by PCR. Microbact confirmed 4 E. coli isolates. All isolates exhibited
multiple drug resistance to the antimicrobial agents tested. An overall
prevalence of 2.2% was obtained for E.
coli O157. All 4 isolates of E.
coli O157 were isolated from raw meat; two of which harboured the stx1 gene.