OCCURRENCE AND ANTIBIOGRAM OF Salmonella IN QUAIL EGGS SOLD WITHIN ZARIA AND KADUNA METROPOLIS , KADUNA STATE NIGERIA

Quail eggs are considered a delicacy which is consu med raw by most consumers with the aim of deriving all the nutritional and medicinal benefits. Salmonellos is i a major public health problem around the worl d, affecting both animals and humans. This study was c arried out to elucidate the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and antibiogram of the isolates in quail eggs sold in major markets within Zaria and Kaduna metropolis , Kaduna state, Nigeria using standard isolation tech niques for Salmonella species and the standard disk diffusion method for the antibiotic sensitivity tes s. A total of two hundred and eighty (280) quail e ggs were collected from 7 different markets, 3 isolates of Salmonella was obtained, and this gave a prevalence of 10.71%. The Salmonella isolates showed a hundred percent (100%) sensitivi ty to Sulphademethoxazole/ trimethroprim, Chloramphenicol, Streptomycin, Kanamy cin, Tetracycline, Trimethoprim, Gentamycin and Ciprofloxacin. While all isolates showed a hundred p rcent (100%) resistance to Amoxicillin/ clavulanic acid, Nitrofurantoin and Penicillin G. The consumption of raw or improperly cooked quail eggs was discourage d, also regulatory control of antibiotics usage in qua il egg production to ensure consumer safety was the refore recommended. Keyword: Antibiogram, quail eggs, resistance, Salmonella, sensitivity Introduction Eggs and egg products are nutritious foods and they form an important part of the human diet. Consumption of raw eggs however, has been associated with negative hea lth impacts. Eggs and egg products that are improperly handled can be a source of food borne disease, such as salmonellosis (Anon, 2004). The genus Salmonella consists of rod shaped, aerobic or facultative anae robic, gram negative bacteria belonging to the Family Enterobacteriaceae (Holt et al., 1994). Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Enteritidis are the commonest causes of non-typhoidal salmonellosis in humans (Acheson & Homann, 2001). It is estimated th at non-typhoidal Salmonella causes 1.2 million illnesses a year in the United States, resulting in 450 deaths (CDC, 2013). Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis is transmitted to the human food supply through eggs o f hens that appear healthy (Porwollik et al., 2005). Salmonella enterica serova Enteritidis has also been isolated from quail eggs (Ozlem & Nuh, 2001). Salmonellosis has become an important public health problem in Nigeria and other parts of the world. It causes heavy economic losses through substantial morbidity and mortality ((Muhammed et al., 2010). Various Salmonella species have been isolated from quail eggs from dif ferent studies carried out and they include: Salmonella Enteritidis, Salmonella Worthington, Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Bareilly (Ozlem & Nuh, 2001; Harsha et al., 2011). Quail eggs are often consumed raw with the hope of deriving all the nutritional b enefits and this could pose a major challenge if they habou r f od pathogens. With paucity of information on the occur rence of Salmonella in this egg type within the study area, it was therefore necessary to undertake this research to e lucidate the prevalence of Salmonella specie and antibiogram of the isolates from quail eggs from major markets in Zaria and Kaduna metropolis. The aim of the study is to isolate Salmonella from quail eggs sold in markets within Zaria and Kaduna metrop olis and to determine the antibiogram of the Salmonella isolates. Materials and Methods Study area/ sampling sites The study area is Zaria and Kaduna metropolis of Ka dun State. Kaduna State is located within the semi-arid n sub-humid regions of the north western zone of Nige ria. It lies between longitude 06.5 o – 08.6 East of Greenwich meridian and latitude 09.2 o – 11.3 North of equator (Quick Bird Imagery, 2013). In Zaria, samples were collected from retail outlets in the following majo r markets, that is Tudun Wada, Sabon Gari and Samaru markets. In Kaduna metropolis the major markets sam pled were Kawo, Angwan sarki, Barnawa and Sabon Tasha markets Sample collection Sampling was done on a weekly basis in order to obt ain the required and varied number of samples. Two hund red and eighty (280) fresh quail eggs were collected ra ndomly from twenty eight (28) retail outlets in Zaria and Kaduna metropolis. A total of ten (10) eggs were collected from each retailer by systematic random sampling which involved selecting five crates of eggs randomly and selecting the fifth and tenth egg in each of the fi v crates selected. The sampled eggs were taken in batches of ten eggs each in clean crates to the Bacterial Zoonoses laboratory of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, A hmadu Bello University, Zaria for bacterial analysis of th e egg