Screening for virulent and antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli in raw and ready-to-eat snails (Arachatina marginata) vended in selected markets in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

This aim of this study was to screen for virulent and antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli in raw and ready-to-eat snails (Archachatina marginata) vended in selected markets within Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Proximate composition, isolation, identification and presence of virulent genes were done using standard methods. Raw snails from Choba market had Escherichia coli count ranging from 1.8x104 to 8.2x105 CFU/g, while the ready-to-eat samples were not contaminated with E. coli. Raw snails from Rumuokoro market had Escherichia counts ranging from 4.2 x104 to 6.9 x106 CFU/g while two of the ready-to-eat samples had counts of 3.602 x 103 CFU/g and 3.556 x 103 CFU/g. Raw snails from Oyigbo market had Escherichia counts ranging from 4.653 x 103 CFU/g to 5.579 x 103 CFU/g while one ready-to-eat sample had Escherichia. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that 100% of Escherichia were resistant to cefuroxime, augmentin, cefixime and ceftazidime. Of the three-virulence genes (eae, ast and aggR) screened for in this study only aggR was detected in one Escherichia isolate. Proper blanching and heating should be employed during preparations of snails to curtail food poisoning.