ABSTRACT

The occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus in various ready-to-eat foods sold in Umuahia metropolis namely, egg roll, meat pie, fish pie and buns and its antibiotic susceptibility were studied. The samples were obtained from various retail outlets and from street vendors. Among these samples, meat pie recorded the highest total viable count of 1.3 X 10 CFU/ml while buns recorded the least total viable counts. Egg roll from the five different location (A. B, C, D, and E) were 3.4± 0 .57, 3.6 ± 0.42, 4.6 ± 0.21, 3.6 ± 0.14 and 3.3 ± 0.71 respectively which shows that there were not significantly different (p) 0.05) while the meat pie samples from the five different locations (A, B, C, D and E) showed significant difference (P<0.05). Out of all the ready-to-eat-food samples, only meat pie showed significant difference (P<0.05), while the rest (Egg roll, fish pie and Buns) showed no significant difference (P>0.05). Most of the isolates were sensitive to erythromycin, gentamicin, streptomycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol and ampicillin. Staphylococcus aureus showed the highest resistance to penicillin. The most effective antibiotics used were erythromycin, gentamicin and streptomycin and this were followed by tetracycline, chloramphenicol and ampicillin while Staphylococcus aureus was completely resistant to cloxacillin with no single sensitive strain. This result indicates that Staphylococcus aureus could be present in food sample and could be a potential vehicle of Staphylococcus aureus borne infection