Incidence of antibiotic-resistant enterococci in three edible land snails consumed in Nigeria

Food animals have been implicated to be the reservoir or carriers of so many anthropogenic pathogens. In the recent time snails have been brought close to man and the rate of snail faming has drasticallyincrease. The possibility of this animal being a source of zoonotic pathogens to farmers and consumers inform this study. Standard microbiological methods were used to isolate and identify enterococciisolated from three edible land snails comprises of Archachatina marginata ,Achatina fulica and Limicolaria sp. Disc diffusion method was used to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolatesto different antibiotics. A total of 191 enterococci isolates were recovered from land snail. Enterococcus faecalis was the most abundant species followed by Enterococcus feacium. A. marginata hadthe highest enterococcal load followed by A. fulica while the least was detected in Limicolaria sp. except for erythromicin,augmentin and amoxycillin the highest percentage resistance to the testedantibiotic was observed in isolates recovered from Limicolaria sp. Nogentamicin-resistant enterococci was detected in the three land snail samples.Antibiotics susceptibilities were in the following decreasing order:GEN CHL TET ERY COT STR AMX AUG CXC. This is an evidence that snail could be an important public health risk to snail farmers, sellers and consumers alike.