Published on October 2019 | Microbiology

PREVALENCE OF POTENTIAL HAZARDOUS MICROORGANISMS AT FREQUENTLY PUBLIC USED SITES

The study was conducted in the five districts of Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh state of North India. Present study was carried out among 150 samples including 50 water samples and 100 swab samples (50 swab samples of bus handles and 50 swab samples of grocery shop counters from districts namely Haridwar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr) collected from Uttarakhand and Western U.P. Frequently publically used sites were preferred for sampling purpose. To determine the bacterial load on these sites, 10 fold dilutions were prepared from the test sample. Colonies were examined and sub-cultured on different media for identification of the isolates. Further identification was made by morphological, microscopic, biochemical and RAPD based molecular characterization. Our study investigated the level of contamination and prevalence of potential hazardous microorganisms at individual sampling sites. 100% samples (50 water samples) of water bodies were found positive for viable count; and ranges between 21×104 to 16.6×105 total viable counts per ml of water sample. While, 100 swab samples (50 from bus handles and 50 from shop counters) were found 100% positive for the isolation of bacteria ranges from 18x104 to 17.5×105 total viable count/4cm2 surface area of bus handles and 21×104 to 11.3×105 total viable count/4cm2 area of shop counters, respectively. These findings from our study are also distinguishing the need to take urgent measures to improve the sanitary conditions of potable water, public transport buses and shop counters. Therefore, removing soil, dust and dirt from them are necessary steps on the reduction of surface contamination by microbes.