Prevalence and Antibiogram of Bacteria Associated with Food Vending in Awka South LGA, Anambra State, Nigeria

Food vending is recently a booming part of the food industry and millions of people depend on it for their daily nutritional needs especially because of its easy accessibility. It has become an important public health issue due to widespread food borne diseases which are leading cause of morbidity and mortality. This study is aimed at assessing the prevalence and antibiogram assay of bacteria associated with food vending in Awka South LGA, Anambra State. The randomly selected towns for this study were three towns in Awka South LGA in Anambra state namely Awka State capital , Mbaukwu and Nise. Descriptive cross sectional study and multistage sampling technique was adopted and sample size determined using a standard formula. Total of 65 food vendors were sampled. Sterile swab sticks were used to swab the palms, aprons, plates and spoons of the food vendors and the rinse method was used for bacteria isolation. Antibiotics sensitivity test of isolates was carried out using Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. The bacteria isolates from this study were E. coli 24.41 , S. aureus 21.60 , B. cereus 9.39 , Pseudomonas aeruginosa 15.96 , Serratia marcescens 4.70 , Klebsiella pneumoniae 10.56 and Salmonella enterica 13.38 . The bacterial isolates during the course of this study showed wide resistance to conventional antibiotics especially beta lactams. The findings of this study therefore necessitate the need for sensitization of food vendors and appropriate measures should be established to monitor susceptibility patterns of microorganisms involved as this will help to avoid possible outbreaks. Egbuim, Timothy Chukwudiegwu | Umeh, Sophina Ogonna | Izuegbunam, Lilian Chinenye "Prevalence and Antibiogram of Bacteria Associated with Food Vending in Awka-South LGA, Anambra State, Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-1 , December 2018, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd19174.pd