Quality Assessment and Safety of Poultry Feed Sold Within Delta State Metropolis

Abstract

The bacterial load and species contaminating poultry feeds and the safety of poultry feeds sold within Delta Metropolis were studied. A total of 15 feed samples were collected from different feed types (broilers, layers and chicks feed) and sources (feeds from factories, feeds inside poultry farms and market feeds). Samples were analyzed by culture and bacterial isolates identified using conventional biochemical test. The contaminants isolated include Salmonella spp, Escherichia coli, Proteus spp, Streptococcus spp, Bacillus spp, Staphylococcus aureus, and Klebsiella spp. The occurren nce of E. coli was higher than other bacteria isolated, 15(23%), followed by Salmonella ssp 10(15.4%), Streptococcus ssp 10(15.4%), Bacillus ssp 9(13.8%), Proteus ssp 8(12.3%), Staphylococcus ssp 8(12.3%) and Klebsiella ssp 5(7.7%). The Total viable counts were found in the range of 5.5x10⁶ to 7.3x10⁶ cfu per ml from market feed, 5.0 x10⁴ to 7.4x10⁵ cfu per ml from poultry farm and 5.0x10⁵ and 6.0x10⁴ cfu per ml from feed factory. Bacteria isolates from broilers feed was lower 11 (27.5%), 12(30%) from chicks feed and 17(42.5%) from layers feed. Our findings showed a relatively high level of bacterial contamination of poultry feed in the studied area.