Dangers of bacterial contamination: An overview of the Antibiogram of bacterial species from ready to eat abacha (African salad) sold in Abakaliki, metropolis, Ebonyi state Nigeria

Four different locations where ready-to-eat abacha is sold within Abakaliki were randomly selected for the purposes of sample collection. Three samples of ready-to-eat abacha were collected each from the following locations: Presco market, meat market, kpirikpiri market and Spera-in-deo. Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The Total Aerobic Bacterial Counts of Abacha Sold at Different Locations within Abakaliki was determined. The counts range from 1.8 x 10⁶ (the highest) and 1.0x10⁶ (the lowest) count. The highest bacterial count was obtained from Meat market while the lowest bacterial count was obtained from Spera-in-deo market. The bacterial isolates with their respective percentage occurrence frequencies include; Escherichia coli (53.33%), Staphylococcus aureus (22. 67%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (14%) and Shigella spp (10%). Escheriachia coli was the most predominant isolate followed by Staphylococcus aureus while the least term of occurrence was Shigella spp in abacha sold within Abakaliki. The Results of Antibiotics Susceptibility Pattern of Bacterial Isolates on Some Tested Antibiotics showed that the bacterial isolated from ready–to- eat abacha had high resistance to the antibiotics tested especially Escherichia coli. The result obtained from the total percentage antibiotics susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolate from ready to eat abacha indicate that all the organisms were susceptible to gentamycin whereas 50% of the organisms were susceptible to ciprofloxacin. The Result of Multiple Drug Resistance Value of Each Organism Isolated from Ready to Eat Abacha Sold within Abakaliki showed that the values obtained from Escherichia coli (0.71) indicates less resistance to the antibiotics tested while Klebsiella pneumonia (0.39) had high resistance to the tested antibiotics.