Prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in beef cattle at slaughter and beef carcasses at retail shops in Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundThere is paucity of information regarding the epidemiology of Escherichia coli O157: H7 in developing countries. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of E. coli O157: H7 associated with beef cattle at processing plants and at retail shops in Ethiopia.MethodsVarious samples were collected from beef cattle at slaughter/processing plants, carcass at retail shops and humans at health centers. E. coli O157: H7 was isolated, identified and characterized for antimicrobial resistance, using standard microbiological methods.ResultsAt the processing plants E. coli O157: H7 was detected in 1.89% of fecal, 0.81% of intestinal mucosal swab, 0.54% of skin swab and 0.54% of carcass internal swab samples. At retail shops it was detected in 0.8% of carcass and 0.8% of cutting board swab samples, while all samples from utensils, hands from workers, and fecal and stool samples were negative. All isolates were resistant to Amoxicillin, moderately resistant to Cefoxitine and Nitrofurantoins but susceptible to other antimicrobials tested.Conclusions E. coli O157: H7 occurs at low prevalence in beef cattle, and the current sanitary dressing procedures in the processing plants and storage conditions in the retail shops are effective against E. coli O157: H7.

Occurrence of multi-drug resistant Escherichia coli and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in meat and swab samples of various contact surfaces at abattoir and butcher shops in Jimma town, Southwest district of Ethiopia

“…Accordingly, E. coli were detected in 102 (20.2%) of the samples tested, whereas E. coli O157: H7 were detected in 27 (5.4%) of the samples. The proportion of positive samples in this study was higher than the previous study nding in different parts of Ethiopia [8,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. However, this study nding is lower than the study nding in Ethiopia and other country [9,21,22].…”

“…In this study, third generation cephalosporin (cefotaxime, ceftriaxone and cefotaxime), gentamycin, cipro oxacin, kanamycin, streptomycin and chloramphenicol showed best activities against our isolates. The best e cacies of the above antibiotics were also reported in previous study ndings in Ethiopia with different resistance rate [14,15,17,18,25,33]. In contrast, higher resistance was observed against erythromycin and ampicillin, followed by tetracycline, co-trimoxazole and amoxicillin -clavulanic acid.…”

“…With the exception of tetracycline, co-trimoxazole and amoxicillin -clavulanic acid, higher were resistance against erythromycin and ampicillin were also reported the previous studies in Ethiopia [8,17,25,26]. In some studies, (33.3-80%) of the isolates were resistant to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, streptomycin, co-trimoxazole and tetracycline [8,14,15,25,33]. This might be due to inappropriate and excessive use of these antibiotics for therapeutic and prophylactic purpose both for E. coli and other infections.…”

“…With regard to samples types, higher proportions of ceacal contents of slaughtered animals were positive for E. coli and E. coli O157: H7 followed by meat and other different swab samples obtained from abattoir and butcher shops. The presence of E. coli and E. coli O157: H7 in meat samples, ceacal content and swab samples were also reported in different studies in Ethiopia [9,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][23][24][25][26][27]. Many reasons might be contributed for crosscontaminations of meat and surface contacts with ceacal contents and other sources.…”

Microbiological safety and hygienic quality of camel meat at abattoir and retail houses in Jigjiga city, Ethiopia

“…In the previous studies, the low detection rate of E. coli O157:H7 than the current finding (4.28%) were noted from beef carcasses i.e. 2/370 (0.54%) [22]. Nevertheless, there are also evidences showing an increasing trend of E. coli O157:H7 in meat production systems in Ethiopia [23,24].…”