Microbiological Evaluation of Bacteria Species Isolated from Zobo and Kunnu Sold in Olabisi Onabanjo University

ABSTRACT

Zobo and Kunu drinks are non-alcoholic beverage that is widely produced and consumed in Nigeria.The beverage may possess health risk when contaminated due to method of preparation. Zobo and Kunu drinks were purchased from different sellers in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye Ogun State. Physical and chemical analysis of the drinks were carried out, involving pour plate were also employed to isolate bacteria from these drinks. The microbial qualities were determined using pour plate method. The antibiotic sensitive patterns of the bacterial isolates were also determined using Kirby-Bauer method. The results for the physical and chemical analysis showed that the parameters (pH, Moisture content and Temperature) of Kunnu is higher to Zobo drinks. The  microbial count ranged from 1.3-19.6cfu/ml in zobo and 2.8-20.6cfu/ml in kunu. Bacteria isolated from the samples with their occurrence included; Escherichia coli (36%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (22%), Staphylococcus aureus (20%), Bacillus spp (14%), Salmonella spp (2%), Proteus vulgaris (2%), Klebsiella oxytoca (2%), Citrobacter freundii(1%) and Enterobacter aerogenes (1%). Most of the bacteria are resistant to one or two antibiotics and they were mostly sensitive to Gentamicin, Tetracycline and Streptomycin while some of the bacteria were resistant to Chloramphenicol and Ciprofloxacin. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella spp was sensitive to all the antibiotics. The occurrence of bacteria contamination in these drinks is of public health importance and may be responsible for food borne of illnesses. Therefore proper quality control of these products should be encouraged so as to reduce the microbial load as well as antibiotic resistant bacteria.