The Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Entero-pathogens Isolated from Land Snails Commonly Eaten in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, South-southern Nigeria

Abstract

A microbiological investigation was conducted on a total of 200 snail samples from 4 sampling sites including Watt market, Odukpani junction, Uyo market and Itam junction in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states for the presence of enteric pathogens. 45 bacteria were isolated. The snails were deshelled, homogenized and cultured on agar media and incubated for 24 hours. The isolates recovered include Salmonella species and Shigella spp 3 (6.6%), Aeromonas, Vibrio and Pseudomonas spp 2 (4.4%) respectively, Enterobacter and Klebsiella spp 3 (6.6%), Staphylococcus aureus 4 (8.8%), Proteus spp 7 (15.5%), Escherichia coli 8 (17.7%) and Yersinia spp 1 (2.2%). The population of bacterial isolates showed a mean bacterial count of 4.2 × 10⁷ ± 0.3 c.f.u./g in the intestinal mass. The foot/head region had a mean bacterial count of 1.3 × 10⁷ ± 0.25 c.f.u./g. The visceral fluid had the least mean bacterial count, 1.6 × 10² ± 0.04 c.f.u./g. The bacterial isolates also showed multi-drug resistance to most antimicrobials. Because of the significance of these bacterial isolates, in that they contribute to gastro-intestinal infections, there is need for proper processing of snails before eating.