Occurrence and Antibiogram of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Locally-Pasteurised Cow Milk (Kindirmo) Sold in Parts of Nasarawa Town, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

This work was aimed at determining the occurrence and antibiogram of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from locally-pasteurised milk (kindirmo) sold in parts of Nasarawa Town, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. In this study, 123 samples were obtained from three different sampling points – Nasarawa Market, Tammah Area and Gunki Settlement. 12 samples yielded positive results for S. aureus, given an overall prevalence of 9.76%. Out of this positive samples, 6 positive samples were obtained from Nasarawa Market with a prevalence of 14.63%; 3 from Tammah Area with a prevalence of 7.32%, and 3 also were obtained from Gunki Settlement with a prevalence rate of 7.32%. Although 41 samples were collected from each of the three different sampling points, the highest prevalence was observed in samples collected from Nasarawa Market, (14.63%), with Tammah Area and Gunki Settlement having an equal prevalence rate of 7.32%. the reason for the disparity from the three sampling areas was not deciphered as the hawkers seemed to have subjected the milk to the same method of treatment (heating the fresh milk to a specific temperature for some period). The antibiotic susceptibility profile of the 12 S. aureus isolates revealed that the majority of the isolates were highly susceptible to ciprofloxacin and rifampicin. The isolates were observed to have developed high resistance to ampiclox, amoxicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, norfloxacin and levofloxacin. 10 resistant phenotypes were observed with varying combinations of 2,3,4,5 and 6 antibiotics. All the isolates had multiple antibiotics resistant (MAR) index of 0.2 and above.