ABSTRACT

This study was to determine the incidence of biofilm formation among Staphylococcus aureus isolated from food contact surfaces in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike eateries. In this study a total of one hundred (100) food contact surfaces were swabbed with a swab stick before and after use. The samples were cultured on mannitol salt agar using streak plate method. A total of forty seven (47) staphylococcal strains and nineteen (19) Coagulase Negative staphylococcal strains were isolated from 100 samples of food contact surfaces. The prevalence rate in this study showed that the highest number and percentage of staphylococcal isolates was observed to be 47%, followed by Coagulase Negative staphylococcal isolate which recorded 19%. About 38% of samples from food contact surface showed no growth of Staphylococcal strains. However, the drug susceptibility profile of bacterial isolate from the food contact surfaces revealed varying percentage of sensitivity and resistance to the antibiotics. From this study, the Staphylococcus aureus exhibited high degree of sensitivity against Ofloxacin and Gentamicin at 41(87.2%) and 38(80.9%) respectively. Cefuroxime (30mcg), Ceftiaxone (30mcg), Erythromycin (30mcg), Cloxacillin (5mcg), Amoxicillin (30mcg) and Ceftazidime (30mcg) showed high level of resistance against the Staphylococcus isolates. The incidence of biofilm reveals that out of the forty seven (47) Staphylococcus aureus isolated from food contact surfaces, 28(58.6%) was positive to biofilm formation, while 19(40.4%) of the Staphylococcus aureus was negative to biofilm formation. These results therefore point towards the need to improve hygiene conditions during the production of food.