IMPACT OF ACTIVATED CARBON ON THE BACTERIAL AND FUNGAL LOAD OF COMPOSTED COW DUNG MANURE

ABSTRACT

 Cow dung manure, also known simply as cow dung or cow manure, is organic material derived from the feces of cattle. Activated carbon is an excellent carrier for inoculants and can encourage microbial life. Aerobic composting is a natural process that involves breaking down of organic materials by microorganisms in the presence of oxygen.   The cow dung sample was divided into four buckets, and activated carbon was added to three of them in varying amounts (80g, 40g, and 20g). The buckets were left to compost in an open-air environment for three weeks and analyzed every week. The initial mean microbial count for the activated carbon and cow manure were 2.82⁴  and 6.95⁴spectively. Salmonella enterica, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella species, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The fungal isolates include; Aspergillus niger, Mucor mucedo, penicillium sp. and Rhizopus arrhizus were the bacterial and fungal isolates obtained respectively. It was observed that Escherichia coli and Bacillus mycoides were reduced more significantly compared to other bacterial isolates while   Klebsiella sp. and Enterobacter aerogenes was most prevalent in week 1 and week 3. The use of activated carbon during aerobic composting is an effective technique for the reduction of microbial load in cow manure