Abstract

Food-borne pathogens are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Changes in eating habits, mass catering, unsafe food storage conditions and poor hygiene practices are major contributing factors to food associated illnesses. In Ethiopia, the widespread habit of ready-to-eat food consumption is potential cause of food borne illnesses. The present study aimed at investigating the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of Salmonella species from ready-to-eat foods from catering establishments in Jigjiga City and determining susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates. This study aimed to assess the ready-to-eat foods Salmonella prevalence and antimicrobial resistance pattern of the isolates. In total, various food samples were collected from 120 hotels and processed to detect Salmonella presence. The ready-to-eat food samples were collected and assessed bacteriologically for Salmonella strains. A total of 120 food samples were bacteriologically evaluated. After confirmation, 25 samples (20.8%) were positive to Salmonella. A total of 5 drug resistance patterns were detected among Salmonella isolates. Out of the 25 isolates 10 (40%) were resistant to three antibiotics, 8 (28%) of the isolates were resistant to 4 of the antibiotics tested, whereas 5 (20%) were resistant to two antibiotics, only 1 (4%) isolate was resistant to 1 antibiotic but 1 (4%) isolate was resistant to five antibiotics. The lack of public sanitary facilities can be another hurdle to keep the desirable hands hygiene of the vendors. In this study, it is reported that severity of the current scenario among the hotel worker hygiene and they are the unknowingly playing role in spread of diseases like Salmonellosis.

Key words: Food Establishments, ready-to-eat foods, Salmonella.