DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2015.v03i05.006

Pages: 452-455

The microbial population in soil contaminated with abbatoir waste water was investigated. The results revealed high bacterial and fungal counts in Rumuokoro waste water (Rw), soil (Rs) , Emenike wastewater (Ew) and soil (Es). The bacterial counts in Rw and Ew were 1.12 x 10 7 and 2.04 x 10 7 cfu/ml while Rs and Es were 4.6 x 10 7 and 7.6 x 10 7 cfu/g respectively. The fungal counts for Rw and Ew were 1.5 x 106 and 2.1 x 10 6 cfu/ml while Rs and Es were 6.0 x 10 6 and 9.0 x 10 6 cfu/g respectively. The control soil sample had lower bacterial and fungal counts of 2.7 x 104 and 1.2 x 10 3 cfu/g respectively. The following genera of bacteria were isolated: Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus aureus ,Streptococcus faecalis, Campylobacter, Pseudomonas and Klebsiella spp while the fungi were Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus , Mucor pusillus and Penicillium spp . The physicochemical characteristics of Rumuokoro and Emenike Abbatoir waste water was as follows: temperature (26◦c and 27◦c ), pH ( 5.1 and 5.2 mg/l),dissolved oxygen (1.2 and 1.2mg/l), biological oxygen demand ( 123 and 125 mg/l), chemical oxygen demand (242 and 245 mg/l) total suspended solid (910 and 915 mg/l), total dissolved solid ( 640 and 660 mg/l) ,conductivity (3125 and 3128/cm) respectively. The contaminated soil samples had the following physicochemical characteristics: pH ( 7.3 and 8.2) ,temperature (30◦c and 33◦c), Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC)( 18.56 and 18.70 %), nitrogen concentration (0.25 and 0.28mg/g). The results showed that there were no significant differences at 0.05 confidence limits between the bacterial counts in the Rumuokoro and Emenike abbatoir waste water and soil. The same result was also obtained in the fungal counts in the abattoirs and soil samples.