Abstract

Most Escherichia coli strains are harmless intestinal bacteria of animals, but some are implicated in food infection/poisoning especially Shiga toxin (or Vero toxin) producing E. coli (STEC) due to consumption of meat. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antibiotic resistance profile of Shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 (STEC) from retailed miscellaneous fish and meat types in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. A total of 256 meat and fish consisting of cow muscles, intestines, rumen-sacs, livers and tails, cat-fish, frozen fish (mackerel and herrings) were examined. Escherichia coli were isolated by enrichment culture cefixime-tellurite sorbitol MacConkey agar (CT-SMAC), morphological, biochemical, serotype latex agglutination and disk diffusion methods. Of the 256 samples, 138 (53.9%) were contaminated with E. coli and 28 (21.7%) E. coli strains were positive for Shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 (STEC). Meat muscles had the highest prevalence of STEC (7.41%) among meat samples, followed by rumen-sacs (6.0%), intestines (5.77%), tails (4.0%), and the prevalence of STEC in Fish includes Cat-fish intestine (26.7%), skin (21.4%), Mackerel intestine (26.7%), skin (14.3%), and Herrings skin (15.4%), gill (7.1%). All the STEC assessed indicated multi-drug resistance, with the isolates showing 100% resistant to ampicilin, and erythromycin, nitrofurantoin (95.7%), amoxicilin clavulanic acid (84.3%), sulphamethaxazole/trimethoprim (75%), streptomycin (75%), tetracycline (66.17%), and gentamycin (53.6%). The isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin (66.7%), Cefoxitin (66.7%), amikacin (39.3%), and chloramphenicol (35.7%). The implication of STEC in this study suggests that contaminated meat types are sold to consumers and can result to serious foodborne hazards. Prescription of ciprofloxacin and cefoxicilin are recommended against this organism. Application of good hygienic procedures in meat and fish handling processes and proper boiling before consumption can mitigate the risk of infection due to resistance STEC strains.