Staphylococcal contamination and its associated antibiotic profiles among dairy products sold around Kampala

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is considered to be a leading cause of food borne illness. Milk and dairy products are often contaminated with the enterotoxigenic strains of this bacterium. Foodstuff contamination may occur directly from infected food producing animals or may result from poor hygiene during production processes, handling processes and storage of these food stuffs since humans may carry these microorganisms. The main aim of this study was to investigate Staphylococcal contamination and its associated antibiotic resistance profiles among dairy products sold in Kampala. During the study a total of 50 dairy samples were collected from different divisions of Kampala Capital City that is to say Makindye, Kampala Central, Kawempe, Rubaga and Nakawa. The samples were collected under aseptic precautions and were enriched in peptone water followed by direct plating on Mannitol Salt Agar. The S. aureus isolates were identified by biochemical tests and the antibiotic profile of S. aureus was evaluated by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Analysis of results revealed that 13 isolates out of 50 dairy samples were confirmed to be contaminated with S. aureus yielding a prevalence of 26.0%. In the study S. aureus isolates were found highly resistant to Penicillin-G (84.6%), followed by Tetracycline 4(30.8%) and 7.7% of the isolates were resistant to Gentamycin, and Ciprofloxacin. In general, the results of this revealed that dairy products provided to the people in the city were found to be highly contaminated with S. aureus. Therefore, the sellers should ensure strict personal hygiene and general sanitary condition of the materials used should be improved and maintained