Bacteria Contamination Of Fish Feeds Sold In Umuahia:- Okeke, Kenneth N

ABSTRACT ix f Contaminated feed frequently causes disease and for that reason, it is necessary to establish surveillance programs for microbiological feed hazards. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of bacterial contaminants associated with commercial fish feeds sold in Umuahia and determine their antibiotics susceptibility pattern. The different fish feed samples (Acer, Bluecrown, Eco, Top, and Vita) were collected, labeled and taken to the laboratory for microbiological i analysis. From this study a total- of five (5) bacterial species were obtained and identified using i morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy, biochemical and sugar fermentation methods.' This reveals the major bacterial isolates to belong to Staphylococcus aureu£.Bacillus sp, Klebsiella sp, Escherichia coli, and Proteus sp. The total bacterial plate count ofthe varibus fish feed samples ranged from 1.28><105cfu/g to 4.16xlOscfu/g. The total coliform plate count ranged from 3.06x105cfu/g to 6.60x105cfu/g. It was observed that Bacillus sp was the most frequently occurring isolates from the various fish feeds samples with a percentage occurrence of(38.9%) whereas Klebsiella sp and Proteus sp had the least percentage occurrence of(11.1%). It was observed that among the five different feed brands investigated, the Acer feed had the highest number ofbacterial percentage distribution of(37.8%) while the least distribution was found in Vita feed sample with (11.1%). The antibiotic sensitivity test showed that Ofloxacin (83.3%) is the drug of choice following the fact that it showed high rate of sensitivity to the bacterial isolates tested, whereas Peflacine showed the least percentage susceptibility of (16.7%) 'to the bacterial isolates. From the results obtained, it was concluded that the microbiological quality ofthe fish feeds sold in Umuahia is poor as it harbored many different pathogenic bacterial species at varying levels of occurrences. There is need to create awareness, though seminars and workshops, on the current poor microbial quality ofthe fish feed and the danger it poses to the fish and human consumers.