STRESS TOLERANCE AND ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CRONOBACTER SPP. ISOLATED FROM POWDERED INFANT FORMULA RETAILED IN NIGERIA

., is an emerging, opportunistic pathogen that causes infections such as , meningitis and in neonates and infants, and can sometimes lead to death. There is zero tolerance for the presence of . all powdered infant formulae because of the high mortality rate (80%) associated with . . Three . (CS14, CS17 and CS124) isolated from PIF retailed in Nigeria were exposed to different levels of stress (pH, osmotic, oxidative, heat, bile and desiccation). The production ability of the isolates was investigated and the susceptibility of the isolates to different antibiotics was carried out using the MIC panel. Variation in stress response was observed in the isolates with no consistent pattern. The CS 17 ( ) and CS 124 ( ) showed the highest tolerance to stress on the average. All the isolates exhibited the ability to produce ranging from 1.30 – 2.0 and were also sensitive to more than 95% of the antibiotics used in the MIC panel, with no resistance to any.