Abstract
Salmonella spp and Escherichia coli are the two most important food-borne pathogens of public health interest incriminated in poultry meat worldwide. This study is to access their levels in frozen poultry meat obtained in Ibadan, Oyo State and compare those obtained from a commercial Nigerian-registered poultry company having a broiler-processing plant, Sayed Farms Ltd(R), with that obtained from retail stores. These retail stores source their products as illegal imports from neighboring Benin Republic or Togo because of a ban imposed by Government policy in Nigeria since July 2002 (USDA, GAIN report #NI2025:1-6, 2002).Microbiological Standards and Guidelines by USDA (National Agricultural library) (USDA 2011) and NCCLS guidelines (from Global Salm-Surv, 2003) were used during the research work. The study was approved by the Ethical Research Review Board (ERRB, Research Management Office 2011), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and fifty-two (152) frozen poultry meat samples comprising ninety-nine retail poultry (53 chicken and 46 turkey) and 53 chicken from the processing plant were accessed. ISO Standards catalogue 07.100.30 (2011) was used in accessing the levels of Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae counts and Aerobic plate count. ISO 6579: 2002 was used for Salmonella isolation and ISO-16654:2001 for Escherichia coli isolation.There was a higher level of Aerobic plate counts and Enterobacteriaceae counts in frozen retail poultry meat than from the processing plant. Salmonella contamination from the ninety-nine poultry samples (53 chicken and 46 turkey) obtained from retail markets was at 33% [chicken 32.1% (17/53) and turkey 34.8% (16/46)] while Escherichia coli at 43.4% [chicken 47.2% (25/53) and turkey 39.1% (18/46)]. From the processing plant, twelve (12) Salmonella isolates were obtained and prevalence rate calculated as 22.6% while three (3) Escherichia coli isolates at 5.7% was obtained.Antibiotic sensitivity for isolates using eight different Gram-negative antibiotics showed different resistance patterns. Nitrofurantion and augmentin showed a decrease in their sensitivity to isolates than they normally should. Salmonella enterica spp. showed 93% resistance to tetracycline and 100% resistance to augmentin and amoxicillin, while Escherichia coli showed 100% resistance to augmentin and amoxicillin.
Highlights
Turkey, spent layers and majorly, broilers serve as sources of poultry meat which has become a product accepted and consumed worldwide as there is an absence of cultural or religious obstacles associated with their use as food and Nigeria is no exception (Alabi and Alabi 2009)
Aerobic plate count and Enterobacteriaceae counts of frozen poultry Aerobic plate counts and Enterobacteriaceae counts in chicken Mean ± SD aerobic plate count (APC) for all the LGA’s was calculated as 7.497 ± 0.94
McConkey agar (MCA) used in determining Enterobacteriaceae counts (ENT) is limited in the range of bacteria that it allows its growth as it is only selective for enteric bacteria such as Escherichia, Shigella, Salmonella, Edwardsiella, Citrobacter, Yersinia, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Serratia, Proteus, Morganella and Providencia as noted by Warren (2007)
Summary
Spent layers and majorly, broilers serve as sources of poultry meat which has become a product accepted and consumed worldwide as there is an absence of cultural or religious obstacles associated with their use as food and Nigeria is no exception (Alabi and Alabi 2009).Major exports of poultry to West Africa comes from the European Union (EU), the exports of which has increased chicken, spending about 8 million US dollars to import chicken meat in 2005 alone (Alabi and Alabi 2009). Poultry meat (chicken and turkey) is readily available for sale in retail markets areas such as is obtainable in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. These imported poultry are kept in freezers but power supply is not constant and is augmented by the use of fuel-powered generating sets. It should be noted that ensuring consumer health concerns the greater involvement of the health sector, development of Codex standards, guidelines and incorporation of the work of the Commission into the national legislation to promote food safety and fair trading practices as should be reflected in the priorities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission of any country especially in the developing countries. Collibacillosis and Salmonellosis have been described as the leading causes of food-borne illnesses worldwide (Panisello et al 2000), it becomes important that ensuring consumer health concerns the greater involvement of the health sector
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