Vol. 3, Issue 1, Part A (2021)

Globally, Antibiotic resistant bacteria have remained an important public health problem Staphylococcus aureus is one of the leading causes of foodborne disease outbreaks due to its ability to produce staphylococcal enterotoxins. This aimed at determining the prevalence of antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Staphylococcus aureus in locally pasteurised cow-milk sold at Dutse metropolis. A total of 70 samples were obtained and transported to the Microbiology laboratory of Drugs Manufacturing Unit of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital for analysis. Staphylococcus aureus were isolated using Mannitol salt agar followed by some biochemical test such as catalase and coagulase and API-Staph Identification. Antibiotics susceptibility patterns of S. aureus were determine using Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion method. In this study the total prevalence of S. aureus was 47.1 %. The result demonstrated the presence of S. aureus in all milk samples which indicated that 40.6% of the samples were positive for S. aureus. The study also revealed that the Staphylococcus aureus isolates demonstrated varying degrees of susceptibility and resistance to different antimicrobials with Penicillin recorded the highest resistance 10(30.3%), and the highest sensitive antibiotic was Cefoxitin 2(6.0%). This study showed presence of S. aureus in all the milk samples collected from different locations within Dutse metropolis. However, Penicillin was the most resistant antibiotic against the isolated S. aureus with Cefoxitin having the highest rate of sensitivity among all the antibiotics tested. The pasteurisation process of local Cow milk should be properly pasteurised to avoid contamination bacteria such as S. aureus. Antibiotics should be used according to the prescribed directives.