Microbial Exposure Assessment of Fresh and Smoked Pork Meat within Ado-Ekiti Metropolis, Nigeria

The breeding and production environments of pigs tend to be exposed to microbial contaminations and could portend a potential public health hazard if not well managed. This study investigated bacterial and fungal loads of commercial fresh and smoked pork in order to ascertain their wholesomeness. Total aerobic bacterial and fungal count were done on nutrient agar and potato dextrose agar respectively, while antimicrobial susceptibility test to selected commercial antibiotic discs carried out using Disk Diffusion Technique. All the twenty samples (Fresh and Smoked) cultured yielded bacterial growth with a range of 2.2 - 9.0 × 104 CFU/g (smoked) to 1.0 – 6.3 × 106 CFU/g (fresh). On the other hand, the fungal loads ranges from 1.0 – 6.0 × 102 CFU/g(smoked) to 1.0 -5.0 × 104 CFU/g (fresh). The bacterial isolated and the ratios in fresh and smoked samples wereStaphylococcus aureus (6: 11), Escherichia coli (5: 8), Bacillus cereus (4: 7), Salmonella spp. (2: 3), Proteus spp. (0: 4), Enterobacter spp. (1: 2), Shigella spp. (0:2) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1: 0), while their fungal counterpart included Aspergillus niger (4: 2), Aspergillus terreus (2; 2),Fusarium oxysporum(4: 0), Penicillium spp. (4: 2), Rhizopus spp. (3: 5), Mucor spp. (0: 4); Geotricum candidum (0: 2) and Microsporium spp. (0: 2). Most of the S.aureus (> 58.8%) and P. aeruginosa (100%), and B. cereus (100%) demonstrated remarkable resistance to the majority of the tested antibiotics. These findings are of public health concern because most of the bacterial and fungal isolates have been implicated in foodborne infections. Hence, there is a need for stricter sanitary measures during the rearing and production to reduce the level of microbial contaminations.