Assessing Environmental and Feed Quality in Southeast Livestock Production

Livestock production has thrived and sustained the livelihood of farmers while reducing poverty and improving the economy of developing nations. It has also contributed largely to the spread of pathogenic bacteria. This study evaluated the bacterial quality of air, water, soil, feed samples, and hand swabs in Aba, Umuahia, Mbaise, and Okigwe in Southeastern Nigeria. Air, water, soil, feeds, and hand swabs were sampled using standard microbiology laboratory procedures. Air samples were expressed in CFU/plate/hour while water, soil, feed and hand swabs were expressed in CFU/ml. Total heterotrophic bacterial count (THBC), total coliform count (TCC), and total potential pathogenic bacterial count (TPPBC) were all analyzed by growing the samples on general purpose, differential, and selective media after serial dilution respectively. Isolates were confirmed by subjecting them to biochemical tests. The highest THBC, TPPBC, and TCC values were obtained in the Aba pig farm, cow abattoir, and poultry farms respectively while Mbaise recorded the lowest values for THBC, TPPBC, and TCC. A total of 1531 bacterial isolates were obtained in all the four cities. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella enterica, Streptococcus poygenes, Vibrio cholerae and Shigella sp. were isolated. Escherichia coli had the highest total percentage distribution (16.9%; 259/1531) in all four cities and Shigella sp (4.8%; 74/1531) was the least distributed. Of the four cities studied, Aba farm had the highest percentages of E. coli (31.66%; 82/259), K. pneumoniae (31.19%;68/218), P. aeruginosa (30.28%; 43/142), E. aerogenes (31.85%; 43/135) and S. pyogenes (36.57%; 49/134). Among the bacterial isolates, Streptococcus enterica had the highest percentage values (42.38%; 64/151) while Shigella sp had the lowest percentage values (12.16%; 9/74). Overall, the bacterial burden in all the farms in the four cities, especially Aba was very high; thorough surveillance by health workers should be encouraged to help reduce the spread of bacteria and bacterial infections among livestock farms.