Isolation, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of enteric bacteria from the hands of food handlers working at different restaurants in Peshawar, Pakistan
Paper Details
Isolation, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of enteric bacteria from the hands of food handlers working at different restaurants in Peshawar, Pakistan
Abstract
Being a source of major contamination, dirty hands can contaminate food, resulting in various food-borne illnesses caused by enteric bacteria. This study was designed to isolate enteric bacteria associated with the hands of food handlers working at various restaurants at Ring road, Peshawar, Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the socio-demographic characteristics and personal hygiene status of the participants. A total of 50 samples were collected using sterile swabs, from the palm of food handlers working at 15 different restaurants. McConkey’s agar media was inoculated using these swabs to allow only gram-negative bacteria to grow. The isolated bacteria were then identified and characterized according to Burgy’s manual. Based on the results of gram staining and different biochemical tests, only two types of enteric bacteria were identified such as Escherichia coli (n=24, 48%) and Klebsiella pneumonia (n=20, 40%), while no growth was observed in 6 samples. Antibiotic susceptibility profile revealed that the highest number isolates were resistant to Ceftriaxone (30µg) (43% resistant), and Amoxicillin (30µg)(43% resistant), followed by Ciprofloxacin (5µg)(13% resistant) and Imepenem (10µg)(9% resistant) respectively, while all the isolate were found susceptible to Amikacin (30µg).It was concluded from the current study that worker hygiene status was lacking hygiene standards, as bacterial contamination was observed on the hands of most of the subjects. The poor hygiene status of food handlers could result in food-borne diseases in food consumers and therefore, it is important to adapt standard hygiene practices while handling food.
Ali R, Hayat A, Fatima M, Noman M. 2016. Detection and enumeration of enteric bacteria associated with food handlers and surfaces of food manufacturing industry located in Hub city, Pakistan. World Scientific News 49(2), 192-203.
Andargie G, Kassu A, Moges F, Tiruneh M, Huruy K. 2008. Prevalence of bacteria and intestinal parasites among food-handlers in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia. Journal of health, population, and nutrition 26(4), 451.
Anuradha M, Dandekar RH. 2014. Knowledge, attitude and practice among food handlers on food borne diseases: a hospital based study in tertiary care hospital. International Journal of Biomedical and Advance Research 5(4), 196.
Assefa T, Tasew H, Wondafrash B, Beker J. 2015. Contamination of bacteria and associated factors among food handlers working in the student cafeterias of Jimma University Main Campus, Jimma, South West Ethiopia. Alternative & Integrative Medicine.
Barrabeig I, Rovira A, Buesa J, Bartolomé R, Pintó R, Prellezo H, Domínguez À. 2010. Foodborne norovirus outbreak: the role of an asymptomatic food handler. BMC Infectious Diseases 10(1), 1-7.
Bauer AW, Kirby WMM, Sherris JC. 1996. Antibiotic susceptibility testing by a standardized single disk method. American Journal of Clinical Pathology 45(4), 493-6.
Dahiru JY, Abubakar FA, Idris H, Abdullahi SA. 2016. Bacterial contamination of food handlers at various restaurants in Kano State Metropolis, Kano Nigeria. Int J Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 5(5), 165-70.
Getie M, Abebe W, Tessema B. Prevalence of enteric bacteria and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among food handlers in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control 8(1), 1-6.
Holt JG, Krie NR P. Sneath PHA, Stately JT, Williams ST. 2013. Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, 9th Ed, Baltimore,α- Amylases from Microbial Sources. Food Technology, Williams and Wilkins. 787-812.
Kirk MD, Pires SM, Black RE, Caipo M, Crump JA, Devleesschauwer B, Döpfer D, Fazil A, Fischer-Walker CL, Hald T, Hall AJ. 2015. World Health Organization estimates of the global and regional disease burden of 22 foodborne bacterial, protozoal, and viral diseases, 2010: a data synthesis. PLoS medicine 12(12), e1001921.
Lillquist DR, McCabe ML, Church KH. 2005. A comparison of traditional hand washing training with active hand washing training in the food handler industry. Journal of Environmental Health 67(6), 13-16.
Ma Y, Ding S, Fei Y, Liu G, Jang H, Fang J. 2019. Antimicrobial activity of anthocyanins and catechins against foodborne pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella. Food Control 106, 106712.
Mouna SM, Rafiuzzaman M, Akter S, Sultana N. 2015. Evaluation of bacterial etiology and hygiene status of food-handlers in Jessore city, Bangladesh. International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) 6(5), 1-7.
Sadiq M, Abdullahi IO. 2008. Hygienic evaluation of two food service centres in a Universiyu campus in Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria. Nigerian Food Journal 26(1), 71-76.
Tan SL, Lee HY, Bakar FA, Karim MA, Rukayadi Y, Mahyudin NA. 2013. Microbiological quality on food handlers’ hands at primary schools in Hulu Langat District, Malaysia. International Food Research Journal. 20(5), 2973.
Tortora GJ, Funke BR, Case CL, Weber D, Bair W. 2004. Microbiology: an introduction. San Francisco, CA: Benjamin Cummings.
Worku T, Jejaw A, Kannan S, Wondafrash B. 2016. Isolation and antimicrobial sensitivity patterns of enteric bacterial pathogens from asymptomatic food handlers, Jimma, Ethiopia. American Journal of Health Research 5(3), 399-406.
Zhang S, Yang G, Ye Q, Wu Q, Zhang J, Huang Y. 2018. Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Klebsiellapneumoniae isolated from retail foods in China. Frontiers in microbiology 9, 289.
Muhammad Ismail, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Salman, Zakir Ullah, Noor Ul Bashar, Suliman Shah, Abdul baseer, Bilal Ahmad, 2021. Isolation, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of enteric bacteria from the hands of food handlers working at different restaurants in Peshawar, Pakistan. Int. J. Biosci., 19(2), 65-71.
Copyright © 2021 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.