Prof. A. R. S. Moorthy, ProSENAIT, GETACHEW2020-06-172023-11-082020-06-172023-11-082007-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/21632Worldwide, millions of people suffer from communicable and non communicable diseases caused by contaminated foods. Very young, elderly and immunocompromised people do suffer more and many fatalities occur due to foodborne diseases and toxicity due to food poisoning. There are many organisms involve in food poisoning, among which Staphylococcus species are of importance and more frequently encountered organisms in food toxicity. The present study was undertaken i) to identify the factors which are responsible for foodborne diseases in hotels, restaurants and cafes in and around Debre-Zeit by questionnaire survey and personal observation of the eating of establishments ii) to isolate and identify Staphylococcus species from ready-to-eat meat products iii) to determine the antibiotic sensitivity of the Staphylococci isolates from the ready-to-eat meat products. This study was undertaken during October 2006 to March 2007 as a cross-sectional study. In the present study, all 57 eating establishments i.e. hotels (23) restaurants (27) and cafes (7) present in and around Debre-Zeit were included and only 22 managers were respondend to the questionnaire survey. It was observed that one of food handlers in these establishments 85 were female and the rest were male and only 59.1%wore apron only, 36.4% apron with hairnet and 4.5% with apron and shoes. The general cleanliness of the premises, kichen and food storage areas in the eating establishments were graded as good (15), satifactory (25) and not good (17). The meat and meat products were supplied to these places by local butchers (63.6%), municipal abattoir (13.6%), bought from local market and/or by slaughtering sheep and goats in their backyard (13.6%) and 4.5% obtained from export abattoir. Only 17 of the 22 managers interviewed informed that they are aware of knowledge of food poisoning and 5 managers had no knowledge about it. Only 68.2%workers undergone monthly, 18.2% quarterly and 9.1% annual medical check up. Regarding inspection of the premises by sanitary inspectors were done weekly (27.3%), monthly (27.3%), quarterly (36.4%) and had no inspected by them (9.1%). A total of 384 samples of ready-to-eat meat products i.e. burger (47), cooked ground meat (103), roasted meat (116), roasted chicken (19) and siga wait (99) were collected for the isolation of Staphylococcus species by using standard bacteriological techniques. Among these S.aureus (41), S.intermedius (33), Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcus (22) and S.hyicus (15) species were isolated. All the five varieties of samples tested yielded Staphylococcus species i.e. burger (25.5%), cooked ground meat (30.1%), roasted meat (29.9%), roasted chicken (36.8%) VIII and siga wet (27.3%). All there isolates (111) were subjected to antibiotic sensitivity and found that polymyxin-B was most sensitive, followed by norfloxacin, trimethoprim, gentamycin and neomycin; where as ampicillin was most resistant to the present isolates. In view of the above results, Staphylococcus species are present in most of the ready-to-eat meat products in eating establishments of Debre-Zeit and may pose potential sources of food toxicity to consumers. The present isolates were only sensitive to higher antibiotics. The implications of Staphylococcus species in read-to-eat meat products on human health was discussed and recommendations were forwarded to conduct further research on enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus species and their effect on public health, proper legislation to monitor eating establishments regarding to serve and store hygienic food in hygienic environment.enCoagulaseEnterotoxins Food productsMeatStaphylococcusThesis