Multiple Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli in Ready-to-eat Foods from Food Outlets in Ekiti State University and Its Environ

The potential health risk associated with consumption of ready-to-eat (RTE) food sold in food outlets in and around Ekiti State University was investigated using standard techniques. The microbiological analysis of 96 food samples obtained randomly from 6 food outlets for a period of 12 months carried out. Antibiotic resistance of 379 Escherichia coli recovered from the samples was also determined using disk diffusion method. Results indicated that the total bacterial counts (TBC), total coliform counts (TCC) and total E. coli counts recorded for the food samples ranged between a mean value of 2.450±0.834 and 65.550±27.430x105 cfu/g; 0.050±0.022 and 12.250±6.735x105 cfu/g; and 0.033±0.021 and 5.333±2.809x105 cfu/g respectively. The values obtained for the TBC for rice, scotch egg, doughnut, semo and beans from all outlets were not significantly different (p<0.05). RTE Foods obtained from ST carried the highest number of E. coli with 21.1% of the total isolates, followed by food samples obtained from DKA with 20.3%. RTE foods from CJ had 18.5% of the total E. coli isolates, while 13.5% and 13.7% of the total E. coli isolates were recovered from foods from TTA and CCA respectively. Generally, the highest number of E. coli (61) was isolated from pounded yam while the least occurrence (26) was recovered from doughnut. Ofloxacin was the most effective antibiotic as only 2 (0.6%) of the E. coli isolates were resistant, while all the 379 isolates (100.0%) were resistant to augmentin and 80.2% and 65.7% of the isolates were resistant to ceftazidime and cefuroxime, respectively. Of the total E. coli recovered from this study, 73.1% were multiple antibiotic-resistant (MAR) with varying resistotypes. The highest percentage of MAR with 8 resistotypes was 0.3% of the E. coli isolates, while highest number (28%) had 4 resistotype with CXM-CRX-CAZ-AUG as the most common resistotype. The results of this study imply that there is need to improve on hygienic and good manufacturing practices in public food outlets in order to attain a relatively safe level in RTE foods for human consumption.