Microbiological Quality Assessment of Raw Meat and Meat Products, and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Isolated Staphylococcus aureus

The objective of this study was to assess the microbiological quality of raw meat and processed meat products in Dhaka city and test the antibiotic susceptibility of the Staphylococcus isolates. A total number of 79 meat samples were categorized into two groups, viz., Group-1 meat (raw meat), collected from dif-ferent slaughter yards and meat stalls located in the commercial areas of Dhaka city and Group-2 meat (processed meat products), collected from ready-to-eat foods. Microbiological quality of the samples was determined by Total Viable Bacterial Count (TVBC), Total Coliform Count (TCC), Total Salmonella and Shigella Count (TSSC), Total Staphylococcus aureus Count (TSAC) and Total Fungal Count (TFC). Hetero-trophic bacteria were recovered from all the meat samples but no Salmonella, Shigella were detected. As expected, some of the samples were found positive with Staphylococcus spp. and coliform. The statisti-cal analysis showed that the mean TVBC (log value/g) was significantly greater (P<0.05) in raw meat from Kawranbazar than all other meat samples studied. TVBC and TSAC exhibited regional significant variation (P<0.05), whereas TCC did not show any remarkable regional variation. Our present study reveals that the TVBC, TCC and TSAC of the meat samples were high in those commercial areas and pose potential risk for public health. From seventy nine samples, 35 isolates of S. aureus were obtained and identified by standard biochemical tests. All these isolates were tested for their sensitivity against common antibiotics used in Bangladesh. Percentage resistance of the S. aureus samples to penicillin, ampicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, amoxicillin and neomycin were found to be 85.71%, 71.42%, 100%, 71.42%, 100% and 85.71%, respectively. But no resistance to vancomycin, bacitracin, cefaclor and ciprofloxacin was found in these isolates. The percentage of multidrug resistant (MDR, resistant against more than three antibiotics) staphy-lococci was 20%