Bacteriological Status and Antibiotics Susceptibility Pattern of Isolates from ‘Suya’ (Roasted Beef) Sold in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

Ready-to-eat Suya meats were randomly sampled and assessed for bacterial status and antibacterial susceptibility profiles of the isolated bacterial pathogens. Bacteriology of Suya samples and antibacterial susceptibility test were determined using standard microbiological and disc diffusion methods respectively. The mean aerobic bacterial count (ABC) from point A, B, C and D ranged from 5.9 x 10⁷ to 2.04 x 10⁸ CFU/g, 6.4 x 10⁶ to 2.44 x 10⁸ CFU/g, 5.8 x 10⁶ to 2.60 x 10⁸ CFU/g and 2.9 x 10⁶ to 1.76 x 10⁷ CFU/g respectively. A total of six (6) bacterial genera were identified including twenty-six (26) Gram-positive and sixteen (16) Gram-negative bacteria. The most frequently isolated bacteria were Bacillus sp (35.7%), Staphylococcus ‘sp’ (26.2%), Klebsiella sp (19%), Escherichia coli (11.9%), Enterobacter ‘sp’ (4.8%) and Proteus ‘sp’ (2.4%) respectively. Antibacterial susceptibility test results indicated that Ciprofloxacin, Gentamycin and Sparfloxacin demonstrated high level sensitivity and broad-spectrum activity on test isolates whereas Amoxicillin, Augmentin and Septrin showed little or no effectiveness on the test organisms. The high incidence of bacterial contamination in Suya suggests that they are potential reservoir for possible outbreak of food-borne diseases. Furthermore, proper antibiotic therapy and patient management in cases of consumption of contaminated Suya is hereby seriously advocated.