ISSN 2756-3413
African Journal of Virology Research ISSN 3421-7347 Vol. 6 (1), pp. 001-004, January, 2012. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus in meat pie and eggroll sold in Umuahia Metropolis, Nigeria
Nwachukwu, Ejikeme* and Nwaigwe, Ugochukwu Victor
Department of Microbiology, College of Natural and Applied Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
Accepted 16 September, 2011
Abstract
Occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus in meat pie and eggroll sold in Umuahia metropolis was investigated. The samples were analyzed according to standard bacteriological methods. Total viable count of meat pie ranged from 1.2 × 103 to 3.4 × 104 cfu/g. Total coliform count ranged from 1.8 × 103 to 4.2 × 103 cfu/g and Staphylococcus count ranged from 1.0 × 103 to 4.1 × 103 cfu/g. Analysis of variance showed that total viable count and Staphlococcus count were significant at 0.05 level. The total viable count for eggroll ranged from 3.4 × 103 to 3.8 × 104 cfu/g. Total coliform count ranged from 1.7 × 103 to 2.3 × 103 cfu/g. Staphylococcus count ranged from 1.5 × 103 to 4.8 × 103 cfu/g. The antibiotic susceptibility of S. aureus indicated various patterns. Some were resistant while some were sensitive to the antibiotics tested. The organism was highly sensitive to gentamycin. In order to prevent outbreak of food poisoning, public health establishments should enforce proper handling of foods such as meat pie and eggroll. Proper hygiene should be practiced by handlers of ready to eat foods.
Key words: Meat pie, eggroll, bacterial quality, antibiotic susceptibility.