Bacteriological quality of beef-contact surfaces, air microflora and wastewaters from major abattoirs located in Benin City, Southern Nigeria

The bacteriological quality of beef produced from most abattoir located in southern Nigeria has always been questionable. This work therefore investigated the bacteriological quality of abattoir facilities from both government and private owned abattoirs located in southern Nigeria. The results of our findings revealed that the total heterotrophic counts and total coliform counts exceeded the recommended standard for sanitary practices. Total heterotrophic counts from air flora ranged from 14.50 x 106to 42.50 x 106cfu. Beef-contact surface ranged from 26.50 x 106to 592.50 x 106cfu while total colony counts obtained from wastewaters from both government and private abattoirs ranged from 140.00 x 106to 1206.75 x 106cfu/ml. The total coliform counts also ranged from 14.25 x 103to 33.75 x 103for air flora and 76.00 x 103to 195.00 x 103cfu/ml for wastewaters. Eight bacterial isolates were consistently isolated during this study, and they included; Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus sp., Citrobacter sp., Alcaligenes paradoxus, Klebsiella sp. and Enterococcus faecalis with varying percentage of frequency across the sampling points. The presence of indicator organisms as well as possible pathogens in this study is of special concern and stakeholders should be encouraged to review the processes involved in the establishment as well as operation of abattoir in southern Nigeria.