Prevalence of Multi Drug Resistant Bacteria on Raw Salad Vegetables Sold in Major Markets of Chittagong City, Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine microbiological quality of raw salad vegetables and their role as a source of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Eight types of vegetables which are commonly used for salad i.e. Tomato, Cucumber, Carrot, Green chilli, Lemon, coriander leaf, Pepper mint, Beet root were collected from two Open markets and two Super shops of Chittagong City. All the vegetables were highly contaminated with Coliform and fecal Coliform (> 1100 CFU/100ml). Range of microbial count of Tomato was 9.0×10 CFU/ml to 4 mold was not detected in most of the vegetables. A total of 266 bacterial isolates of ten genera and three fungi Rhizopus, Penicilium and Aspergillus were identified. Enterobacter spp. (21.80%) was the most dominant followed by Pseudomonas spp. (19.17%), Vibrio spp. (16.92%), Lactobacillus spp. (15.04%), Staphylococcus spp. (10.15%), Klebsiella spp (9.04%), E. coli (4.89%), Citrobacter spp. (2.26%), Serratia spp. (0.37%) and Salmonella spp. (0.37%). Fifty-one selected isolates from Karnafully market were tested for antibiotic susceptibility. Multiple drug resistance was observed in 98.06% isolates with a resistance to two to seven antibiotics. These results suggest the necessity to follow the hygienic practices in handling the vegetables in open markets as well as the super shops and vegetables might have an important role as a source of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria.