Prevalence and Antibiotics Resistance of Campylobacter jejuni in Retail Chickens in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Increasing demand and production of animal protein in Nigeria require safety assessment of associated food borne pathogens for consumer protection. Unhygienic handling of chickens during processing is a common practice at retail markets and poultry slaughter slabs in Nigeria with possibility of foodborne pathogen contamination including Campylobacter.  Published data on Campylobacter in poultry meat in Nigeria are scanty. In this study, Campylobacterjejuni were isolated from chicken samples obtained from retail markets in Ibadan to determine the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility using Campylobacter standard culture technique. Out of 252 chicken samples collected, Campylobacter jejuni was isolated in 242 (96.0% prevalence) samples. Susceptibility test indicated that the isolates were 100.0% resistance to nalidixic acid, gentamicin, and erythromycin and resistance of 38.0%, 46.0%, 50.0% and 58.0% to enrofloxacin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin and tetracycline respectively. Food safety risk could result from direct contamination and cross contamination of carcasses during evisceration and unhygienic rinsing of multiple carcasses from different farms. While the high resistance to commonly used antibiotics could be due to unregulated misuse of veterinary drugs commonly practiced in Nigerian poultry production. Prudence use of antibiotics in poultry, hygienic handling and thorough cooking of poultry products will ensure food safety.

Keywords: Campylobacter, antibiotics resistance, chickens, food safety, Nigeria