Browsing by Author "Hayghaimo,Abdu Amman"

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Prevalence of enterohaemorrhagic escherichia coli (ehec) o157:h7 in cattle meat (beef) in Tanzania.
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2002) Hayghaimo,Abdu Amman
A cross sectional study on the occurrence of EHEC O157:H7 serotype in cattle meat (beef) destined for human consumption was undertaken in two slaughterhouses of Tanzania between December 2000 and June 2001. Surface swabs were taken from 384 beef carcasses immediately after slaughter and were examined for EHEC O157:H7 by first growth enrichment in modified tryptone soya broth (mTSB), followed by immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and finally by culture of bead- 0157 media. Presumptive EHEC O157:H7 were isolated from 25 of 200 (12.5%) beef samples collected from Morogoro slaughterhouse and 21 of 184 (11.4%) beef samples collected from Ukonga- Mombasa slaughterhouse in Dar-es-Salaam. When the presumptive EHEC O157:H7 colonies were subjected to the latex agglutination and biochemical tests for confirmation, 22 (5.7%) isolates showed typical agglutination and biochemical patterns characteristic of EHEC O157:H7. This study suggests that beef in the two slaughterhouses may be contaminated with EHEC O157:H7. Given the hygienic conditions of most slaughterhouses in Tanzania, it can be concluded that beef from slaughterhouses if not properly cooked may present a risk of VTEC 0157 infections and associated disease to humans. This is the first report on the isolation of EHEC O157:H7 in cattle meat in Tanzania.