ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF AIRBORNE BACTERIAL ISOLATES

ABSTRACT

Air harbours large quantity of bacteria and fungi and the knowledge of their number is very important as an index of hygiene for any particular environment. However, because air is not a natural medium for microbe development and reproduction, any organism found in the air must have originated from a living or nonliving source (people, animals, plants, food, water, or soil). Temperature, UV radiation, dryness, and humidity are among environmental factors that influence the formation of airborne particles. The study focused on the isolation and identification of airborne bacteria in the University of Benin, Microbiology Research Laboratory. From the results obtained in the present study, the total bacterial load obtained in the first and second samples were 4.19x102±1.00 cfu/cm3 and 4.80 x103±19.30 cfu/cm3 respectively. Six bacterial genera in total were isolated namely, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus sp, Bacillus sp, Proteus sp, Micrococcus spp and Citrobacter sp. It was also observed that the isolated bacteria demonstrated resistance to some of to antibiotics in the antibacterial susceptibility testing, suggesting the presence of multi drug resistant strains. Further studies should however be carried out on the susceptibility of the bacterial isolates to alternative antibacterial agents.