Prevalence and antibiogram of Escherichia coli isolated from meat and meat products

Abstract

Escherichia coli is an important food-borne pathogen. It is a facultative anaerobic bacterium among the common microbial flora of gastrointestinal tract which is pathogenic to humans and animals. E. coli that cause diarrhea and other enteric illness are called diarrheagenic E. coli. It harmlessly colonizes the intestine but many strains of E. coli cause various intestinal diseases. Presence of E. coli in meat and meat products is a public health hazard. A total of 100 samples comprising of chicken meat (30), mutton (20), chevon (20) and RTE meat products (30) were collected from the Udaipur city in Rajasthan. The prevalence of E. coli were recorded in chicken meat, mutton, chevon and RTE meat products as 56.66% (17), 45% (9), 40% (8) and 13.33% (4) respectively. All the isolates obtained from meat and RTE meat products were also subjected to antibiotic susceptibility test against 10 different antibiotics. The analysis of antibiogram revealed that the isolates were sensitive for chloramphenicol (84.21%), gentamicin (78.94%), ceftriaxone (78.94%) and ampicillin (63.15%) While, the isolates were found to be resistant to erythromycin (94.73%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (36.84%) and oxytetracycline (36.84%).