Prevalence and antibiotic resistance of thermophilic campylobacter spp. isolates from raw beef, mutton and camel meat in Sokoto, Nigeria

Campylobacter is one of the common causes of human gastroenteritis worldwide. The organism is transmitted mostly via foods of animal origin. The study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of contamination of raw beef, mutton and camel meat in Sokoto, Nigeria, with thermophilic Campylobacter spp. and determined antibiotic susceptibilities of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. isolated from these carcasses. From March 2008 to February 2009, a total of 531 raw meat samples from beef (n=242), mutton (n=181) and camel (n=108) were collected randomly from meat processing facilities and retail stalls in Sokoto, and were evaluated for the presence of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. Thermophilic Campylobacter spp. were isolated from139 (26.33%) of the tested samples and the individual prevalence are 22.08%, 37.22% and 17.49% for beef, mutton and camel meat respectively. The most prevalent thermophilic Campylobacter spp. isolates from the raw meat samples was Campylobacter jejuni (74.10%). The antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates were determined for 10 antibiotic, revealed that resistance to tetracycline was the most common (71.4%) resistance observed, followed by ciprofloxacin (42.9%) and nalidixic acid (37.1%). All the isolates tested were susceptible to chloramphenicol and gentamycin. The results of our study have demonstrated that high proportion of meat samples are contaminated by thermophilic Campylobacter spp. which may have serious effects on public health. Most of the isolates are antimicrobial resistant strains. Campylobacteriosis is transmitted primarily through food of animal origin, the presence of antimicrobial-resistant strains in meat is of serious concern to food safety and public health.