ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION AND ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY OF COLIFORMS FROM CHICKEN MEAT WASH WATER AT EKE AWKA MARKET, ANAMBRA STATE.

Abstract

Chicken meat is mostly processed in the open market at Awka, Ananmbra State, Nigeria. The processes involved do not follow standard requirements for abattoirs, thus creating food safety risks to humans. This study sought to evaluate the sanitary quality of rocess water used for chicken meat processing at Eke-Awka market. A 20 ml aliquot of wash water was collected randomly from four different chicken meat processing sites at Eke-Awka market, Awka, Anambra State. Coliforms were isolated using Mac-Conkey agar and coliform ounts were also determined using 1 in ten-fold serial dilution. Organisms were characterized using biochemical tests and their antibiotic susceptibility profile was also determined. It was observed that the process water had highest coliform count of 41.2 x10₄ cfu/ml. Coliforms identified were Klebsiella sp., E. coli and Citrobacter sp, with percentage occurrence of 50%, 50% and 25% respectively. Antibiogram of the isolates showed that they had resistance to penicillin and nafcillin which are beta-lactam antibiotics. This study thus showed that water quality used for poultry carcass washing is of low sanitary standard and it also contains bacteria with antimicrobial resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics.