Abstract
The present study was carried out to evaluate some vegetable leaves sold in Elele markets for human consumption by investigating whether they harbour bacteria. Out of 300 samples examined, 218 (72.6%) harboured bacterial isolates. Depending on the types of vegetable leaves analysed, water leaves recorded the highest frequency of infected samples (16.0%), following by pumpkin leaves (15.0%), while bitter leaves had the lowest by (13.3%). Species of bacteria isolated were: Escherichia coli (29.3%), Staphylococcs aureus (22.9%), Enterobacter aerogenes (18.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8.2%), Shigella species (5.5%), Alcaligenes feacalis (4.6%), Micrococcus species (3.7%) and Salmonella species (2.1%). All samples of water leaves, pumpkin leaves and green leaves harboured ten different bacterial species, with water leaves samples recording the highest occurrence of Escherichia coli (39.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (16.8%), Enterobacter aerogenes (15.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (11.4%), followed by pumpkin leaves with Escherichia coli (29.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (18.1%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.9%). In contrast, Citrobacter species, Micrococcus species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella species could not be isolated from bitter leaves samples. The results of antibiotic susceptibility showed that Gram negative bacteria were highly sensitive (58.5-100%) to ofloxacin, (55.6-100%) to ciprofloxacin, while most of them were less sensitive (0.0-22.7%) to tetracycline. Gram positive bacteria had a susceptibility (90.9-100%) to pefloxacin, (81.8-100%) to ciprofloxacin and Bacillus cereus recorded the least susceptibility (9.1%) to erythromycin. Findings in this study still indicate poor handling practices and risks presented to the consumers at point-of-sale. There is need to educate the vendors and consumers on good sanitary practices during processing, display and sale of vegetables and also dangers associated with misuse of antibiotics. Quinolones could be the drugs of choice in the treatment of bacteria associated with food-borne infection.
Highlights
Fresh vegetables are regarded as important part of a healthy diet
Ten species of bacteria were isolated as shown in Table 2; with Escherichia coli being the most predominant 128 (29.3%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus 100 (22.9%), Enterobacter aerogenes 80 (18.3%)
This high level of bacterial contamination is due to factors such as inability to observe the basic sanitation during consumption, non-availability of water in good quality for washing and predisinfection of fresh vegetables during mass production added to this are poor personal handling from the period of harvest, transportation, storage and most especially during exposure in the markets for sales and reckless handling from person to person
Summary
Fresh vegetables are regarded as important part of a healthy diet. In many countries, such leafy plants are eaten raw or lightly cooked to preserve taste and this practice may favour the likelihood of food-borne infections (Ozlem and Sener) [1]. Vegetables can be contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms during harvesting through faeces, sewages, untreated irrigation water or surface water (Feng et al.) [2]. Unsafe water used for rinsing the vegetables an sprinkling to keep them fresh is a source of contamination (Froder et al.) [3]. It has been estimated that about 20% of all vegetables harvested for human consumption are lost
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