Prevalence of multidrug-resistant and Entero-invasive E. coli isolates in ready-to-eat roasted beef sold on the streets of Ibadan metropolis

This study investigated the level of contamination of ready-to-eat roasted beef by pathogenic E. coli among street vendors in selected local governments of Ibadan. 100 ready-to-eat meat samples were collected randomly from street vendors within the determined GPS-mapped local government in Ibadan, and questionnaires were given to individual vendors. Enumeration of the total viable aerobic count and coliform count was done, and the result in CFU/g was converted to log/CFU/g. Isolation and culturing were done, presumptive E. coli isolates were confirmed by standard biochemical tests, and all indole-positive presumptive E. coli were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility tests by the disc-diffusion method. A total of 68 E coli strains was isolated from the 100 samples, among which 91.2 % showed resistance to Augmentin, 64.7% to cefuroxime, 63.2% to nitrofurantoin, 33.8% to ceftazidime, 29.4% to cefixime, 16.2% to gentamicin, 11.8% to ciprofloxacin and 10.3% to ofloxacin. E coli isolates with multidrug resistance phenotype were 20.6%. Phylogroup analysis showed that most of the isolates are commensals. Only one E. coli separate from the Enteroinvasive E. coli gene (IpaH) was detected in this study. Therefore, properly monitoring and controlling these vendors is crucial to preventing significant outbreaks of food-borne infections from ready-to-eat beef in the Ibadan metropolis.