ABSTRACT

The bacterial contaminants associated with commercial livestock feed used in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture farm, Umudike, Nigeria were studied using pour plate techniques. A total of nine (9) livestock feeds samples were collected namely; poultry feed (starter, grower and finisher), fishing feed (brood stock, starter and grower) and Piggery feed (starter, grower and fattener) for bacteriologically analysis. The average bacterial load of poultry feed sample were range from 3.0 x 10 to 6.9 x 10 , while average bacterial load count of fish feed samples were range from 1.8 x 105 to 5.9 x 10 and the average bacterial load count of Piggery feed samples range from 2.2 x 105 to 8.4 x 10 respectively. Isolated bacterial were identified by morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy and biochemical test. A total of 39 bacterial strains were isolated and identified by morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy and biochemical test. This reveals the major bacterial isolates to belong to Bacillus species, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, Shigella species, Klebsiella species and Serratia species respectively. The brand of Piggery feed samples and poultry feed has highest number of bacterial with (14) bacterial isolates and the lowest recorded in brand fish feed with (11) bacterial isolate respectively. Out of nine (9) livestock feed samples analyzed Escherichia coli found to have the highest number of bacterial isolate with 9(23.1%), follow by Shigella species with 7(17.9%) and the lowest recorded with Serratia species with 3(7.7%) respectively. The contaminate livestock products and constitute a real hazard for public health. Hygienic production of livestock feed is a public health issue, therefore, 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 ofthe bagged feeds.