Abstract
The antibiotic resistance profile of bacterial isolates from cooked food samples sold in different eateries on the campus of the University of Ado-Ekiti was investigated. A total of seventy-eight bacterial isolates belonging to six genera were encountered in the following proportion: Escherichia coli (29.5%), Klebsiella spp. (25.6%), Proteusspp. (18.0%), Salmonella spp. (12.8%), Pseudomonas spp. (11.5%) andEnterobacter spp. (2.5%). The antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates revealed that resistance to six out of the eight antibiotic tested was above 50%. Nalidixic acid was the only antibiotic with a resistance rate below this range. Resistance to amoxicillin was the highest (89.1%), followed by augmentin (76.9%) and gentamycin (71.8%). The results suggest the need for intensive surveillance of isolates throughout food production continuum to prevent food-borne infections and also to detect emerging antimicrobial resistance phenotypes. Key words: Antibiotic resistance, vended food quality, surveillance.
Highlights
Food consumption is an important pathway for bacteria to infect humans, the presence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in foods warrants particular attention
The study demonstrated the occurrence of multiple antibiotic resistance among bacterial isolates in ready-to-eat foods sold on a university campus in south western Nigeria
This study emphasizes the need for intensive surveillance of isolates throughout the food production continuum to prevent food-borne infections and to detect emerging antimicrobial resistance phenotypes especially in the developing world
Summary
Food consumption is an important pathway for bacteria to infect humans, the presence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in foods warrants particular attention. Food contaminated by faecal material from healthy humans may be an important source of antibiotic resistant organisms that later cause human infections (Teuber, 1999; Schoeder et al, 2004). Non-pathogenic organisms that may contaminate man’s food chain from time to time may serve as reservoir of genes for antimicrobial resistance in organisms. These genes are encoded by integrons that occur on plasmids or that are integrated into the bacterial chromosome (Goldstein et al, 2001). Antimicrobial resistant strains of animal or human commensals that do not produce disease may transmit their resistance genes to pathogenic organisms whenever they occur in humans
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