Abstract

The antibiotic resistance profile of bacterial isolates from cooked food samples sold in different eateries on the campus of the University of Ado-Ekiti was investigated. A total of seventy-eight bacterial isolates belonging to six genera were encountered in the following proportion: Escherichia coli (29.5%), Klebsiella spp. (25.6%), Proteusspp. (18.0%), Salmonella spp. (12.8%), Pseudomonas spp. (11.5%) andEnterobacter spp. (2.5%). The antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates revealed that resistance to six out of the eight antibiotic tested was above 50%. Nalidixic acid was the only antibiotic with a resistance rate below this range. Resistance to amoxicillin was the highest (89.1%), followed by augmentin (76.9%) and gentamycin (71.8%). The results suggest the need for intensive surveillance of isolates throughout food production continuum to prevent food-borne infections and also to detect emerging antimicrobial resistance phenotypes.

Key words: Antibiotic resistance, vended food quality, surveillance.