Abstract & Overview
The physicochemical and microbiological assessment of the waste water from a major abattoir at Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu North local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria and its impact on the microbial population of the receiving soil and river were studied.The results of the physicochemical analysis showed that the effluent, the river water and contaminated soil parameters exceeded Water Environmental Federation (WEF) limitation guidelines for meat processing.Waste water (Wb) from the butchering section had a higher bacteria count of 3.20 x 10 6 cfu/ml than waste water (Wr) from the rinsing section with 2.21 x 10 6 cfu/ml.The contaminated soil (Sc) had a higher value of 2.45x10 4 cfu/g than the uncontaminated soil (Suc) with 1.80 x 10 4 cfu/g.On the other hand, the fungal count of the waste water sample(Wb) from the butchering section had a lesser count of 1.16 x 10 4 cfu/ml than waste water sample(Wr) from the rinsing section with 1.18 x 10 4 cfu/ml while the uncontaminated soil (Suc) had a higher value of 1.22 x 10 4 cfu/g than the contaminated soil(Sc) 1.12 x 10 4 cfu/g.Bacteria isolated from both waste water and soil sample include Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Serratia sp., Pseudomonas putida, Enterobacter aerogenes while the fungi isolated include Aspergillus niger, Torulopsis sp., Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida sp., Penicillum sp. and Saccharomyces cerevisae.Statistical analyses showed significance differences (p<0.05) between the total bacterial count in the contaminated soil and the uncontaminated soil and also between the total bacteria count in the butchering and rinsing section.The corresponding values obtained for fungal count also showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between the contaminated and uncontaminated soil while there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the butchering and the rinsing section.These results showed that a high microbial load in the Abattoir wastes had a negative effect in the microbial population in the soil and the river, hence the need to treat waste water before discharging into the ecosystem.