Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Isolated from Various Meat Types in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana.

Meats are important potential sources of foodborne pathogens including . This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of isolated from meats in the Tamale metropolis of Ghana. Isolation of was done using the procedure according to the USA-FDA . Antibiotic resistance patterns in the isolates were determined by the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method against 8 antibiotics. The overall prevalence of in the meat samples was 84.00% (189/225). Mutton (88.89%), guinea fowl (88.89%), beef (86.67%), local chicken (80.00%), and chevon (75.56%) were contaminated by . The average coliform count was 4.22 cfu/cm and was highest in guinea fowl (4.94 log cfu/cm) and lowest in local chicken (3.23 log cfu/cm). The isolates were highly resistant to erythromycin (85.00%), tetracycline (73.33%), and ampicillin (71.67%). The multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index ranged from 0.13 to 1. The isolates exhibited 23 antimicrobial resistance patterns with resistant pattern TeAmpE (tetracycline-ampicillin-erythromycin) being the most common. Multidrug resistance was 68.33% (41/60) among the isolates. The results showed that was commonly present in the various meat types and exhibited multidrug resistances, necessitating efficient antibiotic stewardship guidelines to streamline their use in the production industry.