Distribution and quantification of escherichia coli and escherichia coli O157 : H7 in organic Vegetables at Farm Level

Organic vegetables are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, thus they attract many consumers whom are concerned with their health. However, several researches had reported the presence of foodbome pathogens such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Escherichia coli 0157: H7 in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lim, Poh Yiin
Format: Final Year Project Report / IMRAD
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8739/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8739/1/Lim%20Poh%20Yiin%20ft.pdf
Description
Summary:Organic vegetables are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, thus they attract many consumers whom are concerned with their health. However, several researches had reported the presence of foodbome pathogens such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Escherichia coli 0157: H7 in organic vegetables. The aim of this study is to detect and characterize E. coli as well as E. coli 0157: H7 in raw organic vegetables from four organic farms located at Kuching and Siburan areas. Fifty one samples were collected and analyzed using Most Probable Number (MPN) supplemented with Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method. E. coli was successfully isolated and enumerated from the organic vegetables samples. Characterization of nine of the E. coli isolates through antibiotics susceptibility test (AST) showed that five of them were multi resistant and possessed high risk of contamination by having Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) Index of 0.571 and 0.286. Fortunately, none of the samples tested harbored for pathogenic E. coli 0157: H7.