Eight bacterial species were isolated from smoked meats and screened for the production
of β-lactamase; which was detected by penicillin impregnated starch paper strips. β-lactamase was detected
in the following bacterial isolates:
Klebsiella pneumoniae
(75.0%),
Escherichia coli
(69.7%),
Proteus
sp.
(33.3%),
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
(25.9%),
Staphylococcus aureus
(80.0%) and
Streptococcus feacalis
(12.5%). There was no β-lactamase detected in
Lactobacillus casei
and
Salmonella
sp. isolated from the
meats. The prevalence of β-lactamase detected in the samples shows that the bacteria posses the potential to
produce β-lactamase irrespective of the source of isolation. The sensitivity of the β-lactam antibiotics
(penicillin G, ampicillin and cloxacillin) used range from 8.3-100.0%. Although, penicillin G has the
lowest sensitivity of 8.3% to
Klebsiella pneumoniae while, ampicillin and cloxacillin were 25.0% and
16.7% sensitive to the same bacteria respectively.
Salmonella species is the most susceptible (range from
70.0-100.0%) to the tested antibiotics among the β-lactamase positive bacteria screened. The frequency of
occurrence of the pathogenic bacteria and the feacal indicator organism (
E.coli) indicated gross
contamination of some of the meat samples analyzed; this indicates that the meats may have been
contaminated either during processing with faecal contaminated water or handling by the sellers. In
conclusion, the habit of eating uncooked smoked meat should be discouraged and emphasis should be laid on
properly cooked meat before consumption.
