Isolation of bacteria from table eggs in Zambia

Abstract

In 2400 table eggs, purchased from 8 different retail outlets of Lusaka city, Zambia, the frequency of bacterial isolation from the shell membrane and yolk was determined. Bacterial genera (17) isolated from the shell membranes were Escherichia coli (40.95%), Salmonella sp. (4.76%), Staphylococcus sp. (3.33%), Micrococcus sp. (5.24%), Pseudomonas sp. (0.95%), Klebsiella sp. (6.67%), Enterobacter sp. (3.81 %), Citrobacter sp.(1.90%), Providencia sp. (3.81 %), Serratia sp. (1.90%), Hafnia sp. (0.95%), Acinetobacter sp. (0.95%), Proteus sp. (10 .48%), Streptococcus sp. (2.38%), Alcaligenes sp. (6.67%), Flavobacterium sp. (2.86%), and Bacillus sp. (3.33%). The bacteria from the yolk included Escherichia coli (40.27%), Salmonella sp. (22.82%), Staphylococcus sp. (2.01 %), Micrococcus sp. (3.36%), Pseudomonas sp. (2.68%), Klebsiella sp. (6.04%), Citrobacter sp. (6.04%), Serratia sp. (7.38%), Proteus sp. (5.37%), Streptococcus sp. (0.67%), Alcaligenes sp. (2.01%) and Bacillus sp. (1.34%). This study demonstrated that the shell membranes were contaminated with a higher number of organisms than the yolk.