Isolation and Identification of Escherichia coli O157:H7 from locally minced meat and imported minced and chicken meat

A total of 143 samples of meat were examined in this study, these represents 67 samples of locally minced meat, 31 samples of imported minced meat and 45 samples of imported chicken meat. The samples were collected from different areas of Baghdad city during the period from January till May 2006. Detection, isolation an enumeration of E.coli 0157:H7 were carried out. The result revealed that there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the isolation percentage and the microbial counts of E.coli 0157:H7 when comparing the three types of meat. The highest prevalence were found in the locally minced meat (80% ; 1.6 x 107 cfu/g) Followed by the imported minced meat (65% ;5.9x106cfu/g) and finally chicken meat (56%; 2.7 x 106 cfu/g)