The predominance of Multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria among dairy products especially yoghurt is fast becoming a major concern in most communities. Five (5) industrially prepared yoghurts were aseptically collected and transported to the Microbiology Laboratory of Federal University of Technology, Minna. Samples were serially diluted and inoculated on various media through the pour plate method. The bacterial isolates were identified through their Gram reaction and other biochemical tests. The antibiotic susceptibility tests were carried out using the disc diffusion method on Muller Hinton agar. The result revealed that, sample C (1.7x103) had the highest microbial count while Sample D (8x102) had the lowest microbial count respectively. Various bacterial pathogens were isolated and identified with Klebsiella sp, Staphylococcus sp and Escherichia coli having the highest frequency of occurrence (20%), followed by Pseudomonas sp and Lactobaacillus sp which had their frequency of occurrence to be 13.3% while the least frequency of occurrence (6.7%) was observed in Salmonella sp and Streptococcus sp. The antibiotic susceptibility tests revealed that all bacterial isolates were multidrug resistant and as such are a great threat to the general public especially the consumers of yoghurt drinks. Hence, there is a need for adequate and continuous surveillance by food regulatory bodies in Nigeria, to curtail the infections associated with Multidrug resistant bacteria.
Keywords: Yoghurt; Multi-drug resistant bacteria; Antibiotic susceptibility test