Isolation and Identification of Air Microflora Around Refuse Dumpsites in Nasarawa Town and their Sensitivity Pattern

Abstract

Refuse dumpsites are found littered both within and on the outskirts of Nasarawa town due to poor and ineffective waste management, this posed health risk to the populace and add strain on diminishing land space as well as harboring pathogenic organisms. This study is aimed at assessing the air microflora around refuse dumpsites in Nasarawa town and their sensitive
pattern to some common antibiotics. Nasarawa state were checked and the sensitivity of the isolates to some common antibiotics were evaluated. A total of sixteen plates of Nutrient and Sabouraud agar were prepared in duplicate and opened around the refuse dump sites for about 30 minutes at a height of about 130cm. Prepared plates were incubated appropriately for 24 and 42 hours for bacteria and fungi respectively. The average number of colonies of bacterial and fungi of the different dumpsites (Tammah, Oversea, Campus and Market) are; 8.5x101, 7.55x101, 6.55x101, 9.4x101cfu/m3 and 7.8x101, 6.25x101, 5.0x101, 9.0x101cfu/m3 respectively. Pure isolates were obtained by sub culturing into Mannitol salt agar, Salmonella shigella agar and MacConkey agar. The cultural and morphological of the isolates were revealed.The isolates were identified by biochemical test such as Catalase, Coagulase, Citrate, Sugar fermentation test. The bacteria isolated and some antibiotics they are sensitive to are as follow; Escherichia coli (Streptomycin, Oxofloxacine and Ciproflox), Staphylococcus epidermidis (Oxofloxacine, Streptomycin and Gentamicin), shigella spp (Ceporex, Oxofloxacine and Gentamicin,). Staphyloccus aureus (Streptomycin, Oxofloxacine and pefioxacine). The fungi identified are Rhizopus crazae, Mucor racemosus and Aspergilus niger. Some of the isolates are pathogenic which have the potential to cause infectious diseases, therefore indiscriminate dumping of refuse within and around the town should be avoided.