Isolation and Identification of Staphylococcus Species from Ready-To-Eat Meat Products in and Around Debre-Zeit , Ethiopia

The study was undertaken with objective of i) to identify the factors which are responsible for food borne diseases in hotels, restaurants and cafes in and around Debre-Zeit by questionnaire survey and personal observation of the eating of establishments ii) to isolate and identify Staphylococcus species from ready-to-eat meat products iii) to determine the antibiotic sensitivity of the Staphylococcus isolated from ready-to-eat meat products. In the present study, all 57 eating establishment i.e. hotels (23) restaurants (27) and cafes (7) present in and around Debre-zeit were included and only 22 managers were responded to the questionnaire survey. It was observed that out of 99 food handlers in these establishments 85 were female and the rest were male and only 59.1% wore apron only, 36.4% apron with hairnet and 4.5% with apron and shoes. The general cleanliness of the premises, kitchen and food storage areas in the eating establishments were graded as good (15), satisfactory (25) and not good (17) . The meat and meat products were supplied to these places by local butchers (63.6%), municipal abattoir (13.6), bought from local market and/or by slaughtering sheep and goats in their backyard (13.6%) and 4.5% obtained from export abattoir. Only 17 of the 22 managers interviewed informed that they are aware of knowledge of food poisoning and 5 managers had no knowledge about it. Only 68.2%workers had undergone monthly, 18.2% quarterly and 9.1% annual medical checkup. Regarding inspection of the premises by sanitary inspectors were done weekly (27.3%), monthly (27.3), quarterly (36.4%) and had no inspected by them (9.1%). A total of 384 samples of ready-to-eat meat products i.e. burger (47), cooked ground meat (103), roasted meat (116), roasted chicken (19) and “siga-wait” (99) were collected for the isolation of Staphylococcus species by using standard bacteriological techniques. Among these S.aureus (41), S. intermedius (33), Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcus (22) and S.hyicus (15) species were isolated. All the five varieties of samples tested yielded Staphylococcus species i.e burger (25.5%), cooked ground meat (30.1%), roasted meat (29.9%), roasted chicken (36.8) and “siga wet” (27.3%). All these isolated (111) were subjected to antibiotics sensitivity and found that polymyxin-B was most sensitive, followed by norfloxacin, trimethoprim, gentamycin and neomycin; whereas ampicillin was most resistant to the present isolates. In view of above results, Staphylococcus species existed in most of the ready-to-eat meat products in eating establishments of Debre-Zeit and may pose potential sources of food toxicity to consumers. The present isolates were only sensitive to higher antibiotics. The implication of Staphylococcus species in ready-to-eat meat products on human health was discussed and recommendation were forwarded to conduct further research on enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus species and their effect on public health, proper legislation to monitor eating establishments regarding to serve and store hygienic food in hygienic environment.