AEROMICROBIOLOGY OF THE ATMOSPHERE WITHIN AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC, IKOT OSURUA
Abstract
The aeromicrobiology of atmosphere within Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, was investigated using settle plate technique with Petri dishes containing different culture media namely Nutrient Agar (NA) and Mannitol Salt Agar (MSA) medium, at two different sites in the school, and at three time interval of the day (8.00 am, 12.00 pm and 3.00 pm). Standard microbiological methods were employed for the identification of bacterial and fungal isolates. The results of the microbial counts of the atmosphere samples recorded the highest bacterial counts of (103 Cfu and 29 Cfu) for L2, followed by (99 Cfu and 21 Cfu) for L3, (79 Cfu and 18 Cfu) for L1, (61 Cfu and 19 Cfu) G2, (42 Cfu and 15 Cfu) for G3 and the least of (29 Cfu and 8 Cfu) for G1 on Nutrient Agar (NA) and Mannitol Salt Agar (MSA) respectively. It also revealed the highest fungal counts of 27 Cfu for L2 followed by L3 of 22 Cfu, L1 of c11 Cfu, G2 of 5 Cfu, G3 of 3 Cfu and the least of 1 for G1 respectively. The results of the study revealed the presence of seven (7) bacterial isolates and its percentage frequency occurrence of the highest percentage frequency was recorded for Staphylococcus sp. (31.7%), Corynebacterium sp. (17.4%), Micrococcus sp. (15.5%), Bacillus sp (15.1%), Citrobacter sp (9.9%), Pseudomonas sp (8.3%) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (2.1%) in descending order. Also revealed the presence of four (4) fungal isolates and its percentage frequency occurrence of the highest percentage frequency was recorded for Aspergillus sp. (46.4%), Penicilium sp. (27.5%), Cladosporium sp. (15.9%) and Rhizopus sp (10.2%) in descending order. Appropriate attention therefore needs to be given to outdoor microbiology of a populated environment such as the educational settings in order to minimize the transmission of airborne microbes with deleterious consequences.
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