Efficacy of Antimicrobial Activity of Garlic Extracts on Bacterial Pathogens Commonly Found to Contaminate Meat.

BACKGROUND Meat is amajor source of food and raw materials for a number of industries, yet a lot of meat is wasted each year due to deterioration as a result of spoilage by microorganisms such as Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Moraxella, Bacillus, Campylobacter, Escherichia, Listeria, Clostridium, Salmonella and Staphylococcus species. OBJECTIVE To determine efficacy of antimicrobial activity of garlic extracts on bacterial pathogens commonly found to contaminate meat. DESIGN A cross sectional study. SETTING The Department of Public Health, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Nairobi. SUBJECTS Garlic from Nganoini farm in Laikipia County, Kenya. RESULTS The results indicated that garlic absolute ethanol extract had the highest efficacy of antimicrobial activity inhibiting all test micro-organisms. CONCLUSION Ethanolic extract can be used as a meat preservative or decontaminant.