Microbiological Assessment of Poultry Feeds within Ilorin, Nigeria

The poultry feeds were obtained from 20 different poultry pens and their microbial contents were assessed. The antibiotics resistance patterns of the bacterial isolates were also determined. The bacterial count ranged from 5.0 × 103 to 1.76 × 106 cfu/g while the fungal count ranged from 3.5 × 104 to 1.9 × 105 cfu/g. The bacterial species isolated were Streptococcus salivarius, Streptococcus pyogenes, Micrococcus luteus, Micrococcus varians, Micrococcus roseus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Staphylococcus hominis, while the fungal species isolated were Saccharomyces cerevisisae, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium sp., Humicola grisea, Aspergillus fumigatus, Hansenula sp. and Humicola fuscoatra. All the bacterial isolates were resistant to ceftazidime and cefuroxime and all the isolates were resistant to at least three antibiotics. Ofloxacin produced the highest zone of inhibition, followed by gentamicin, and then erythromycin. The presence of some pathogenic microorganisms in the poultry feeds revealed high level of contaminations. It is recommended that poultry feeds should be made from good quality grains and it should be prevented from environmental or other contamination.