Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns of Campylobacter Species in Locally Pasteurized Milk Product (Nunu) Sold in Zaria Metropolis, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Contaminated milk and milk-products are regarded as vehicles for the transmission of Campylobacteriosis, infectious diarrhoea caused by Campylobacter but the prevalence of this bacterium in nunu had not been established. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of Campylobacter species in locally pasteurized milk product (nunu) sold in Zaria metropolis and establish the antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates. A total of 180 nunu samples were collected and cultured for Campylobacter species using membrane filtration method, characterized using biochemical testing and API campy kits. Susceptibility of the isolates was carried out using the conventional agar diffusion method and the MAR indexing was calculated respectively. Out of the 180 nunu samples, 29 samples were positive for Campylobacter species giving a prevalence of 16.1%. Campylobacter coli were mostly isolated with isolation rate of 10.5% while C. jejuni were 5.6%. Imipenem were found to have 100% efficacy against all the Campylobacter species followed by Gentamicin (95%) while the isolates were resistant to Erythromycin (100%). Altogether, 39% of the Campylobacter species were resistant to three and more class of antibiotics and this is mostly implicated among strains of Campylobacter coli (47%) compared to C. jejuni (31%). The highest MAR index of 0.63 observed in this study is of public health importance. In this study, all the isolates had a MAR index greater than 0.2. Thus, Campylobacter contamination of the milk product is likely to be from a high risk source. With the increasing trend in Campylobacter resistance, it is therefore recommended that the use of antibiotic in animal food production and human therapy had to be controlled