Microbial Assessments of Raw Beef Meat Products

This study was aimed at examining the microbial formation of raw beef meats sourced from markets with a view to assessing it. The results of this study showed that the total viable bacterial counts of raw beef meat ranged between 35.58×103±04.56 cfu/g and 48.00×103±06.4 cfu/g, while the fungal counts ranged between 10.36×103±02.03 cfu/g and 16.80×103±03.37 cfu/g. Species of Penicillium, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus recorded the highest frequency of occurrence of 41.18%, 32.00% and 45.45% in the abattoir, open market and cold room respectively. The total viable bacterial counts and fungal counts revealed no significant difference (p>0.05) across the market sources. There were high levels of antibiotic susceptibility of the bacterial isolates. The methicillin resistant status of all the bacterial isolates revealed 100% susceptibility to methicillin (AAN). The plasmid profile result revealed the bands of resistant bacterial isolates making them plasmid mediated. Hence, microbial assessments of raw beef meat products should be encouraged by the relevant health sectors to counter completely microbial load in raw beef meats.