Microbial Contamination on Ready-To-Eat Dog Meat in Jos, North Central Nigeria

Contamination of meat and meat products during and after processing may be the major cause of outbreaks of food borne diseases. In this study, a total of 20 dog meat samples were randomly collected from different selling points in 20 different locations of Jos North and South for bacterial and fungal analysis. The results obtained revealed that the bacterial load count ranged from 0.02x106 to 2.65x106 CFU/ml. The highest bacterial count was from Vom market and the lowest from Zawan and Rayfield. The bacterial organisms isolated were: Bacillus spp, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter spp, Salmonella spp, Shigella spp, Staphylococcus spp, Streptococcus spp and Klebsiella spp. Escherichia coli had the highest percentage prevalence of 90.0% and Bacillus spp had the lowest percentage prevalence with 15.0%. On the basis of bacterial isolates in relation to location, Vom market had the highest bacterial contamination of six (6) organisms followed by K-vom and Abattoir with five organisms; Zawan and Ray field had the lowest contaminants of two (2) organisms. The fungal organisms isolated from the study were: Candida albicans (75.0%), Aspergillus spp (25.0%), Bipolaris zeicola (15.0%) and Torula graminis (15.0%). The study revealed that dog meat sold in Jos and environs is contaminated with a number of microbial organisms which could be due to poor hygiene and improper handling of the meat during and after processing; this therefore calls for urgent response in the education of dog meat vendors and consumers on the hazards of these organisms and importance of meat hygiene practices.

Keywords: Microbial contamination, Dog meat, Jos, Meat vendor, Public health