Food-borne Bacteria: Occurrences, Multidrug Resistant Patterns and Susceptibility to Aqueous Leaf Extracts of Acalypha hispida (Linn)

The occurrence and susceptibility of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria obtained from food to aqueous leaf extracts of Acalypha hispida (ALEAH) were determined using standard bacteriological and disc diffusion methods. In rice, Total Heterotrophic Counts (THC), Total Coliform Counts (TCC) and Total Feacal Counts (TFC) ranged from 3.3x103 to 1.9x104 (CFU/g), 1.9x103 to 3.6x103 (CFU/g) and 1.0x102 to 1.6x102 (CFU/g), respectively. In ‘garri’, highest THC (2.0x 104 CFU/g), highest TCC (1.2x 104 CFU/g) were obtained in sample GA-03 and lowest TCC (2.0x 103 CFU/g) were obtained in samples GA-04 and GA-11. In ‘fufu’, the THC and TCC ranged from 7.3x 103 to 9.5x 103 (CFU/g) and 2.6x 103 to 4.6x 103 (CFU/g), respectively, while ≥ 70% ‘fufu’ had no TFC. Eight genera (Escherichia, Staphylococcus, Enterobacter, Streptococcus, Klebsiella, Proteus, Pseudomonas and Salmonella were obtained in the food samples. Growths of single bacterial isolate were obtained in 41.7% of rice, while co-contamination with two and three isolates were observed in 33.3% and 25.0% samples, respectively. Only 50.0%, 16.7% and 33.3% of ‘garri’ had growth of single, two and three bacterial isolates, respectively, while between 1 (8.3%) to 5 (41.7%) of ‘fufu’ and rice had growth of two and three bacterial isolates. The ALEAH contained alkaloids, cardiac glycoside, phenolics, saponin, tannin, flavonoids, deoxy- sugar, anthraquinones and phlobatanins. The results showed that between 45.5% to 66.7% bacterial isolates were multidrug resistant. Of 56.3% MDR S. aureus obtained from the boiled rice, fufu’ and ‘garri’ only SAF4 and SAR3 had the same resistance patterns. The discs containing 20 mg/ml and 80 mg/ml ALEAH showed the lowest and highest activity of 6.7±1.8 mm and 13.6±1.0 mm, respectively. Streptococcus spp SPF1; E. coli ECG3, and P. aeruginosa PAF2 were resistant to 20 mg/ml and 40 mg/ml of the ALEAH. Conclusively, there is need to always evaluate the bacteriological quality of the food sold in the fast food centres / restaurants from time to time and train the food handlers on food safety practices.