Occurrence of multi-drug resistant Bacillus cereus in foods

A total number of 110 Bacillus Isolates were obtained from 400 food samples comprising cooked rice, goat meat. milk, semi-processed foods, spices and pulses. Of these samples. 58 (14.50%) were found to be positive for Bacillus cereus. Among the samples, cooked rice accounted for the maximum (31.05%) number of B. cereus isolates. Antibiogram pattern of 58 isolates indicated multidrug resistance. All isolates were resistant to ampicillin, bacitracin, colistin, co-trimoxazole, cephotaxime and carbenicillin. However, these isolates were sensitive to amikacin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, oxytetracyclin, ciprofloxacin and novobiocin. Occurrence of B. cereus isolates with multiple drug resistance poses significant public health hazard.