Microbiological Assessment of Poultry Droppings, Water and Soil Under Deep Litter (Dl) And Battery Cage (Bl) Systems Within Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focuses on the evaluation of the microbiological profile of microbes found in water, soil, droppings, in selected poultry farms under intensive and semi-intensive management system within Lagos, Nigeria. Bacteria and fungi were isolated from poultry droppings, water and soil samples and identified by standard microbiological protocol. The data on the assessment of poultry production system were obtained with structured questionnaire. The bacterial and fungal counts ranged from 29 X 109 CFU/mL - 106 X 109 CFU/mL and 72 X 109 CFU/mL - 115 X 109 CFU/mL respectively. The microorganisms isolated were Streptococcus pluranimalium, Micrococcus sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus arlettae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Bacilllus subtilis, Aeromonas hydrophila, Candida tropicalis, Saccharomyces spp, Sporendonema spp., Aspergillus fumigatus, Fusarium oxysporum, Kloeckera spp., Zygosaccharomyces spp and Aspergillus niger. Aspergillus niger (30.5%), Micrococcus sp. (17.6%) and Staphylococcus saprophyticus, (17.6%), occur most frequently while Candida tropicalis (4.6%) and Escherichia coli (5.8%) has the lowest percentage occurrence in poultry droppings. Aspergillus sp. (48.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (28.6%) occur most frequently while Penicillium sp. (15.2%), Staphylococcus spp. (7.1%), has the lowest percentage occurrence in poultry soil samples. Fusarium sp. (38.8%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (28.6%), occur most frequently while Aspergillus sp. (7.7%), Staphylococcus spp. (7.1%) has the lowest percentage occurrence in water samples. Most of the isolated bacteria showed resistance to at least two different classes of antibiotics. There is strong evidence that poultry farms in Lagos have utilized many antibiotics and this may have contributed to antibiotic resistant pattern of some bacterial isolates to antibiotics.