MICROBIAL CONTAMINANTS ASSOCIATED WITH FERMENTED MILK “NUNU” SOLD IN MAKURDI METROPOLIS, BENUE STATE OF NIGERIA
Aernan, P.T., Ebah, E.E. and Ukange, P.
Department of Biological Sciences
Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria
tracernan1@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Nunu is a fermented milk product consumed as a drink in parts of West Africa.To assess the microbial contamination of “nunu”,a total of sixty(60) samples of ‘nunu’ was collected from five different market locations in Makurdi metropolis. This included samples from bothsources of production and vendors. Samples were cultured on nutrient agar, MacConkey agar, Mannitol salt agar and Sabouraud dextrose agar. The microorganism isolated includes Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, Proteus spp, Klebsiella spp, Candida spp, Saccharomyces spp, Trichosporum spp, Cryptococcus spp, Fusarium spp, Alternaria spp, Moraxella spp, Bacillus spp, and Mucor Spp. e.t.c. From the results ‘nunu’ collected from the source of production had higher mean microbial total viable count, enterobacterial and fungal counts of 2.58×106cfu/ml, 1.56×106 cfu/ml and 2.08×106 cfu/ml respectively as compared to samples collected from vendors which had mean microbial total viable counts of 1.13×106cfu/ml enterobacterial count of 1.22×106cfu/ml and fungal count of 1.53 ×106cfu/ml. The sources of contamination could be from the producing animal(s), the milker as well as the water used for ‘nunu’ processing. Efforts should be intensified on improving the sanitary condition of this product as this could lead to fatal health hazards.
Key words: fermented milk, “nunu”, mannitol salt agar, macConkey agar.