Occurrence Of Methicillin And Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus In Yoghurt Products Sold In Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria.

  ABSTRACT 

Occurrence of methicillin and vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in yoghurt products sold in Umuahia was investigated. Ten brands of yoghurts were analysed for Staphylococcus load, occurrence and antibiogram using multi-drug antibiotic disc technique. Results obtained shows that the population of Staphylococcus aureus in the yoghurts was in the range from 1.5 × 106 to 4.6 × 106 cfu/ml.  Staphylococcus aureus was present in each of the test samples (100% occurrence) and their sensitivity to antibiotics varied. Against methicillin however, all the isolates were resistant (100% resistance) while 90% resistant was recorded against vancomycin. The reactions to the other drugs shows that the isolates were totally resistant to four of the test drugs including Oxacillin, Ceftazidime, Ceftriaxone, Erythromycin, Cloxacillin and Amoxycillin/Clavulanate while Gentamycin, Ofloxacin, Cefuroxime records 70%, 50%,30% and 10% sensitivity respectively. It was observed that they were variations in the levels of resistance and susceptibility of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates from the yoghurt to the test drug. It was concluded that the microbiological quality of the yoghurts was low and the Staphylococcus aureus isolated was multi-drug resistant which is of great public health importance