Isolation and identification of microbial contaminants associated with commercial poultry feeds

Abstract

Poultry feeds are food materials used in raising poultry birds. Poultry is the second most widely eaten meat in the world, accounting for about 38% of the world meat. The diseases of poultry is like the disease of other animals. They may be caused by pathogenic organisms, nutritional deficiency and from wound. This study was designed and carried out to determine the load and species of fungi and bacteria contaminating poultry feeds. A total of 6 samples were collected from different feed types and source of feeds inside poultry farm and markets feeds. The isolates were identified according to their cultural, microscopic and biochemical properties to the following gram negative bacteria include Escherichia coli and Proteus spp and gram positive bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus spp. The fungi includes Aspergillus niger, Penicillium spp, Fusarium spp, Rhizopus spp, Mucor spp, and Cladosporium spp. It is concluded that poultry feeds, especially those inside farms are harbouring potential pathogenic bacteria and fungi loads that are far above the acceptable levels, thus constituting a public health hazard and necessitate the application of the standard measures for production of feeds by manufacturers and health authorities. Therefore, the study recommends that hygienic production of poultry feed is a public health issue, proper treatment of feed ingredients and application of hygienic measures such as HACCP, starting from harvesting of feed ingredients to the storage, processing of feeds, packaging, transporting and eventual marketing of the bagged feeds is need of the hour.