Identification and Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern of Staphylococci

Staphylococci are the main cause of food borne intoxication and food borne outbreaks worldwide due to its ubiquity and ability to persist and grow under various conditions. A cross-sectional study was carried out between the periods of May 2014 to March 2015 with the aims to investigate the occurrence of Staphylococcus, determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus and evaluate the antimicrobial resistance pattern of the isolates from cottage cheese (Ayib) and yoghurt (Ergo) collected from selected districts of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. Identification of the staphylococci was undertaken using Gram's staining, catalase, sugar fermentation and coagulase tests on 400 samples (cottage cheese = 200, yoghurt = 200) collected by simple random sampling technique. The overall prevalence of Staphylococcus in this study was found to be 14.3% with a specific prevalence of 22% in cottage cheese and 6.5% in yoghurt. The difference on the prevalence of staphylococci between cottage cheese and yoghurt was found to be statistically significant (P<0.05).