Isolation of Staphylococcus aureus from ice, water, show counters and shrimp vendors at the Mucuripe fish market, Fortaleza, Ceará State

Abstract

Food vendors represent a relevant role on nutritious safety and disease transmission, in order that pathogens are introduced through handlers during manufacturing, processing, distribution and food preparation. The current study aimed to isolate and identify Staphylococcus aureus strains present on ice and water samples with sodium chloride, both used on shrimp conservation, show counters as well as on hands, nasal and oral cavities of shrimp vendors of two counters (A and B) of a fish market at Mucuripe, Fortaleza, Ceará State. On counter A, S. aureus was present in 90% of ice samples and in 40% of samples collected from counter B which was the only one to present bacterium contamination among six samples (60%) of water. From the 20 samples of the show counters, 50% of counter B and 10% of counter A presented contamination with S. aureus. This bacterium was also identified in 100% of the vendors independent from the investigated site. These results suggest that the shrimp vendors should have had more information about body care and safe handling of the ice used on fish refrigeration.