Isolation, Identification and Antibiogram of Bacterial Pathogens Gotten from Cow Meat Obtained from Different Market Sources

Abstract

Food safety is of increasing concern among consumers of meat especially with reference to food borne microbes. In Nigeria, the consumption and sales of meat products are increasing. The aim of this work was to determine the microbial loads cow meat obtained from different market sources and antibiotic resistance of the isolates. Cow meat samples were randomly collected from local markets in five (5) different LGA in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and were subjected to microbial isolation and identification procedures using the serial dilution and pour plate methods and were identified using the colonial, microscopic, cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics. The isolates were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing using the Kirby- Bauer disk diffusion method.  Results obtained revealed that the predominant bacterial pathogen isolated was Escherichia coli followed by Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium perfringes, Yersinia enterocolitica, Aeromonas spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Shigella flexneri. S. aureus and Salmonella spp were resistant to 80 % of all the antibiotics. C. jejuni, and S. flexneri showed resistance to 60% of the antibiotics while C. perfringes and P. aeruginosa showed resistance to 50 % of the antibiotics whereas, E.coli and Aeromonas spp. showed resistance of 40%. The lowest resistance of 30 % was recorded in Y. enterocolitica. The multiple antibiotic resistance index (MARI) of the isolates recovered in the present study indicates multidrug resistance in nature. The result of the study showed contamination of cow meat probably due to poor sanitary environment and dirty places during slaughtering, transportation and processing.