Probiotic Poptential Of Actinomycetes Isolated From Fish Pond Effluents:- Ukabara Chiamaka F

ABSTRACT viii The rate of discovery of new secondary metabolites has been decreasing, so the discovery of actinomycetes from several sources increases the chance for the discovery of new secondary metabolites. Therefore, the study is aimed at determining the probiotic potentials of actinomycetes from fish pond effluents in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike. Serial dilution method was used to isolate the Actinomycetes strains from the samples obtained. Standard biochemical technique was employed to characterize isolates obtained from the fish pond effluent which revealed the genera of Streptomyces sp, Micromonospora sp and Nocardia sp. The percentage occurrence of isolates from different fish pond effluent samples shows that Streptomyces sp 5(41.7%) had the highest occurrence followed by Micimonospora sp 4(33%) while Nocardia sp 3(25%) had the least occurrence. From the result, Streptomyces sp had more antimicrobial activity against pseudomonas aeruginosa 25 mm and E. coli 18 mm while Nocardia sp had the least antimicrobial activity against pseudomonas aeruginosa 5 mm. Since Streptomyces sp amongst all genera of actinomycetes isolated from the samples possesses vigorous antimicrobial activity against the bacterial pathogens in the fish pond effluents and are highly stable at acidic pH 4.2 to 7.4 and also stable at bile salt of up to 0.5%. Further study on other probiotic properties, e.g., adherence to the intestinal epithelium, exoenzyme production, as well as the host immunostimulant, is promising. Therefore, there is a need to find out new antimicrobial-producing strains as the pre-existing drugs have failed due to the development of resistance among the microorganisms.