SDCA Journal of Medical Technology

Abstract

Filipinos, being in an agricultural country, are undeniably meat and fish lovers. Pork is the most consumed livestock and poultry product while fish is number one in the marine products in CALABARZON. However, these products may carry a type of bacteria called extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli, which can cause infections in humans. This study wants to determine if there is extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in pork and fish meat samples sold in public markets in Cavite and compare the groups to show how much of this bacteria is present in these samples. Procedures include isolation and culture using Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) broth for enrichment. Subcultures are done using MacConkey to differentiate the lactose fermenter from non-lactose fermenter. Eosin methylene blue is used for further identifying E. coli, and biochemical test was utilized for manual bacterial identification. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. This helps screen ESBL and see how resistant the bacteria might be to different antibiotics. The double disk synergy test was used to observe the presence of the ESBL phenotypes. The limit of the study is the detection of the extended spectrum beta-lactamase phenotype and will not include their genomic characteristics. This study only focused on ESBL producing E. coli in retail meats specifically pork and fish. Other bacterial contaminants that were not covered in this study were not determined.

Keywords: Determination; Characterization; Extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli; Fish; Pork.