An Evauation of The Bacterial Quality of Cow, Chicken and Goat Meat Sold in Owerri Municipal Area, Imo State, Nigeria.

Nwarime Maryann Amarachi , Amah Henry Chidozie Kennedy Tamunokubie

Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Imo State University Owerri, Nigeria

Department, of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria

All Corresponding to: ohakpolamugwo Nwabueze C . Email:chrysogonus2000@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The bateriological quality of meats sold in Owerri municipal area of Imo State, Nigeria was investigated with the aim of determining the bacterial loads of meat sold in these areas. Samples numbering 110 were collected from 11 meat samples types sourced from cow, goat, and chicken. The eleven (11) meat sample types were fresh cow muscles (FCM), fresh cow intestine (FCI), fresh cow liver (FCL), and fresh cow towel (FCT). Fresh goat muscles (FGM), fresh chicken muscle (FCM), fresh goat intestine (FGI), fresh chicken intestine (FCI), Fresh goat liver (FGL), fresh chicken liver (FCL), fresh goat towel (FGT) etc. The samples were collected with sterile containers and swab sticks. The bacteriological analysis were done using pour plate method on Nutrient Agar, MacConkey Agar and Salmonella shigella Agar . The colonies were counted, characterized and identified using standard microbiological and biochemical techniques. The organisms isolated were Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella specie and Coliform specie. Fresh chicken 7 6 intestine has the highest total mean bacteria count of 1.1 × 10 (cfu)/ml, followed by fresh cow towel 7.0 × 10 (cfu)/ml and 5 lastly fresh chicken liver 8.2 ×10 (cfu)/ml. The presence of all these organisms can pose a major threat to public health. This calls for regular inspection of animals, abattoir environments and regular health check of abattoirs workers and butchers.

Key words; Bacterial; Salmonella; E. Coli. Klebsiella

INTRODUCTION

Mcarbohydrate, vitamins and minerals which are delicious and easily digestible food (Lee et al., 2020). All these nutritional requirements can be met easily if reasonable amount of meat is included in a diet. Meat is an animal flesh that is eaten as food and is an excellent source of protein in human diet (Lawrie and Ledward, 2006). Its chemical composition is ideal for the growth of a wide range of spoilage and pathogenic bacteria. Chemical composition includes 72-75% of water, 21% Nitrogen compounds (19% proteins and 1.6% non-protein Nitrogen), 25-50% lipids, 1% of non-nitrogenous compounds (vitamins) and carbohydrate (very small amount of glycogen). Contaminated raw meat is one of the main sources of foodborne illnesses. According to Paul et al., (2014), food borne diseases result from ingestion of bacteria, toxins present in the meat. The intensity of symptoms varies with the amount of contaminated meat ingested and the susceptibility of the individual to the toxin. These can results in economic and health losses (Gupta, 2017, Sharif et al., 2018)

Meat is gotten from animal like goat, cattle, chicken, etc, and they have essential parts that are used as meat e.g beef (red meat), intestines (small and large intestine), and the skin which is also called node. Muscles of healthy animals do not contain micro-organisms, meat tissue get contaminated during the various stage of slaughter and transportation. The health status of animals prior to slaughtering and prevailing circumstances in the slaughter house contributes to the quality of meat from such animals (Whyte et al., 2004). In Nigeria particularly, Owerri in Imo state, slaughtering of animals usually takes place under very unhygienic conditions. This coupled with the high ambient temperature, high humility, shortage of portable water and poor handling practices, exposes meat to microbial contamination (Whyte et al., 2004).

Other primary sources of microbial contaminations are the equipments and physical facilities (stock, knives, containers, retail tables) used in each operation before the final is eaten (Jay et al.,2005, Bakhtiary et al., 2016, Rouger et al., 2017).

A selection of uncooked red meat and poultry, including beef and chicken. Source; By Unknown photographer - https://visualsonline.cancer.gov/details.

Spoilage is caused by the practically unavoidable infection and subsequent decomposition of meat and by bacteria and fungi, which are borne by the animal itself, and the people handling the meat and their equipment. A great diversity of microbes inhabits fresh meat generally, but different types may become dominant depending on PH (Jay et al.,2005).

composition, textures, storage temperature and transportation method involves (Ercolni et al., 2006). Raw meat may harbor many important pathogenic microbes such Salmonella species, Campylobacter Jejuni, Yersinia. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and to extent, Listeria monocytegenes, making the meat a risk for human health of which without proper handling and control of these pathogen, food borne illness may occur. (Manninen, et al., 2002). Therefore, this work is aimed at evaluating the bacterial quantity of cow, goat and chicken meat sold in Owerri municipality, Imo state, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods Study setting

The study was conducted in Owerri Municipal Council area of Imo State, Nigeria. Owerri is the capital of Imo State which is located in South Eastern Nigeria, lies between o o o latitude 5 51 North, Longitude 6 35 and 7 28 east and comprises 27 local government areas with a total land mass 2 of 5,289.49km and a total population of 3,928,634 (Imo State Statistical year book, 2011). Imo State is made up of both civil servants and business men and their main occupation is farming and trading. The population is made up of indigenes, tenants, business men and civil servants

Sample collection, preparation and analysis

Fresh beef, chicken and goat meat was purchased from different butchers, slaughter houses, open shops, markets within Owerri Municipality which includes Ekeonuwa market, Relief market, New market, etc. Samples were promptly transported to Medical Microbiology Laboratory, Imo State University, with insulated ice container for bacteriological analysis

The method described by (Jay et al., 2005) was adopted in the preparation of the meat samples. One (1) grams of each of the solid samples was weighed and aseptically taken into a sterilized jar containing 9mls sterile distilled water to produce a stock solution or homogenized solution through blending at 300rpm for 5 minutes. An aliquot of homogenized solution was transferred for a test containing 9ml of sterile water to make a tenfold serial dilution and was -5 shaken vigorously. Sterile dilutions up to 10 was prepared for microbiological analysis.

In Table 1: Shows the variation of microbial loads of fresh meat samples. Fresh chicken intestine has the highest total 7 mean bacteria count of 1.1×10 (cfu)/ml followed by fresh 6 cow towel 7.0×10 (cfu)/ml and lastly fresh chicken liver 5 8.2×10 (cfu)/ml. This may be as a result, chicken are been raised in a large scale farm and come in contact with many other chickens which increase the spread of bacteria. According to Bacterial Analytical Manual (BAM) and American Society for testing materials says that 25 – 250(cfu)/ml plate and 100,000 colonies /ml are significant for infection respectively. Therefore, the result from table below is significant for infection

KEY: TMVBC: Total Mean Viable Count; TMCC: Total Mean Coliform Count; TMSSC: Total Mean Salmonella shigella count; TMEC: Total Mean Escherichia coli count; TMSC: Total Mean Staphylococcus count.; FCM: Fresh Cow Muscles, FCL: fresh cow liver,; FCI: Fresh Cow Intestine, FCT: fresh cow towel; FGM: Fresh Goat Mucsles, FGL: fresh goat liver; FGI: Fresh Goat Intestine, FCHM: fresh chicken muscles; FCHL: fresh chicken liver, FCHI: fresh chicken intestine ; Cfu/ml: Colony Forming Unit per Milliliter.

Table 4.3 shows the overal bacteria isolated and their percentage distribution. Eschericia coli has the highest frequency and percentage distribution 36 (43%) followed by Salmonella species 24(28%), Klesbsiella 13 (15%), Staphylococcus aureus 6 (7%) and lastly Coliform species 5 (6%)

An Evauation of The Bacterial Quality of Cow

Discussion

In this study, a total of five (5) species of bacteria were seen in goat, chicken and cow. These species are identified as Eschericia coli, Klebsiella spp, coliform, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp. The frequency and percentage distribution of bacteria isolates from fresh meat marketed in Owerri municipal showed that cow muscle parts has the 0 highest total bacteria species 13 (35 / ) while chicken and 0 goat have the same frequency and percentage distribution of 0 12 (32 / ). Among these bacterial species, Eshericia coli has 0 the highest percentage distribution of 43% and highest total mean viable count in cow towel, chicken intestine, goat 6 5 towel and cow towel (7.0 x 10 (cfu)/ml), (8.2 x 10 (cfu)/ml), 4 4 (9.0 x 10 (cfu)/ml) and 6.4 x 10 (cfu)/ml) respectively. Eshericia coli is assumed to be an indicator of faecal contamination. This is in agreement with Ozlem, (2005) and Haggard et al., 2004) which says that Eschericia coli contamination is as a result of feacal contamination of the samples. This may be attributed to improper sanitary condition during processing of meat from water supply, unsterilized utensils and contaminants from flies.

Salmonella species has the second highest percentage distribution of 28% and highest total mean viable count in 5 fresh goat towel 4.9×10 (cfu)/ml, chicken intestine 5 5 4.5×10 (cfu)/ml and chicken muscle 3.4×10 (cfu)/ml etc. This result is in contrast with the work of (Mgbemena et al., 2015) that reported that no Salmonella and Shigella were seen in the samples examined. Salmonella species such as Salmonella typhi is a bacterium that causes typhoid fever, and acute life threatening ulcer. The disease is a cause of concern and major public health problem in underdeveloped countries (Asia and Africa) especially in Nigeria due to poor sanitary conditions and lack of portable water. Coliforms was seen in fresh chicken muscles 6 7 (1.6×10 (cfu)/ml), intestine (1.1×10 (cfu)/ml) and liver 5 (8.2×10 (cfu)/ml). This may be as a result of reused dirty water in washing meat as well as dirty environment where the chicken is slaughtered.

This work has revealed that microbial qualities of meat sold in Owerri municipal market are grossly contaminated by gram positive and gram negative but mostly gram negative bacteria. The organisms isolated are in line with the work of Shrestha et al., (2017) and Baah et al., (2022), who 0 reported that gram negative account for approximately 69 /0 of the cases of food borne bacterial diseases. The presence of all these organisms on meat is indicative of public health hazard and gives a signal of possible occurrence of food borne intoxication and infection. This also implies that these meats are viable source of various diseases. The presence of Staphylococcus aureus in this study is as a result of cross contamination from many butchers before it gets to the final retailers. Staphylococcus being a flora of the body indicates contamination from the handlers. The organism can pass onto meat during slaughtering, butchering and evisceration (Tegegne, et al., 2023, Naas et al.,2019). It is the major cause of food poisoning (Şanlıbaba, 2022). The poisoning is caused by ingestion of an enterotoxin produced which is characterized by diarrhea and vomiting (Rusnak et al., 2004, Liu, et al., 2022, Yuan et al., 2023)

Conclusion

The findings in this study has shown a high bacterial load in meat sold in Owerri Municipal area in which Eschericia coli have the highest percentage distribution.

Eschericia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and others have been the aetiological agents of food-borne diseases. According to WHO, these organisms are “priority organisms”. They are involved in multidrug resistant bacteria which increases mortality rate. These pose great challenge to public health as it may serve as a source of food poisoning and death. Therefore, consumers should apply proper cooking methods to reduce microbial load.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In this study, we recommended that public health inspectors and veterinary doctors should be recruited for regular inspection of animals, meat abattoir environments and regular health check of butchers and abattoirs workers.

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