Microbial Species Associated With Degrading Abattoir Waste In Umuahia :- Chikere, Geraldine C

ABSTRACT ix r I The aim ofthis study is to assess the microorganisms involved in the degradation ofAbattoir was in Umuahia, Abia State. A total of 8 samples which include (Soil, Waste water, Knife, Table swab, Wall swab, Homs, Feaces and Hand swab) in sterile containers and immediately transported to Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Microbiology Laboratory Unit for bacteriological analysis. Isolation of microorganisms from the abattoir effluent samples were aseptically carried out using standard microbiological techniques as Dilution factors, 10 and 104 using a pour plate technique and was cultured on MacConkey agar (MA) and Nutrient agar (NA), Salmonella-Shigella Agar and Mannitol Salt agar respectively and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. A total of nine (9) microbial genera were identified after standard biochemical and cultural testing was done which six (6) was bacterial specie and three (3) was fungal specie namely Bacillus sp, Escherichia coli, Serratia sp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus sp, Micrococcu sp, Aspergillusflavus, Rhizopus stolonifer and Rhodotorula sp.The samples had total aerobic plate count ranged from The samples had total aerobic plate count ranged from 3.6 x 105 to 8.8 x 105 while total coliform plate count ranged from 4.5 x 105 to 9.9x 105 and total fungal plate count has 2.0 x 105 to 5.0 x 105 respectively. The percentage occurrence of the bacterial isolates which shows that E.coli 28% had the highest percentage occurrence while Pseudomonas had the least percentage occurrence of 4%. The percentage occurrence of fungal isolates which shows that A. flavus had the highest occurrence of 46% while Rhodotorula showed the least occurrence of 23%. The Physio-chemical shows that from the first reading the Temperature ranged 27.2 to 27.0, PH value ranged from 4.6 to 4.4, Conductivity 34.0 to 34.3, Total suspended solid 1750 to 1754, Total dissolved solid 630 to 635, Biological oxygen demand 45.0 to 45.2 while the chemical oxygen demand 151 to 154. From the study statistically, it was revealed that the Total Heterotrophic count ranged from 4.7±0.058 to 8.8± 0.05a followed by Total Coliform Plate Count ranged from 4.5 ±0.058 to 9.9 ±0.50a while the Total Fungal Plate Count ranged from 2.9 ± 1.00f to 3.0 ± 0.05a.It is therefore important to adopt appropriate abattoir wastewater treatment measures to prevent the contamination of the environment including surface water and ground water. Implementation of low cost, low technology management practices like separation ofsolids by screening, blood separation (protein recovery), primary settling, etc should be carried out to reduce the period of delayed degradation.