Assessment of Outdoor Airborne Bacteria and Fungi and their antimicrobial susceptibility at Selected Populated areas in Gondar town, North- west Ethiopia.

Abstract

The concentration and quality of microbes in urban atmosphere may affect human health and environment. The study therefore was an attempt to evaluate the microbiological quantity and quality as well as their susceptibility to various antimicrobial agents of air in some selected area of Gondar, Ethiopia. Five locations namely ‘Piazza’ downtown, ‘Biliko’, ‘Chechela’, ‘Arada’ and the open space of Gondar University were selected by random sampling method. Settle plate method was undertaken in NA and PDA media. The results obtained revealed that the concentration of bacteria in the study area ranged from 2.3 to 2.6 log10 Cfu/m3 while total amount of fungi in the outdoor air in the town ranged from 1.6-1.95 log10 Cfu/m3. The result revealed the characterization of three (3) bacterial and eight (8) fungal isolates. Preliminary cultural, morphological, biochemical characteristics of the isolates revealed the following bacterial isolates, Staphylococcus (39.1%), Bacillus (29.9%) and Micrococcus (31%) were shown to be the most predominant airborne bacteria while the most common fungi identified were Rhizopus, Aspergillus., Penicillium., and Mucor. At least 65% of airborne microorganisms were filamentous fungi isolates Rhizopus (29.1%) and Aspergillus (19.6%) were showed to be the most frequently isolated airborne fungal organisms. There was a significant difference in level among almost all studied zones. The highest bacterial level was detected in Biliko (Zone 2) with 2.6 log10 Cfu/m3 and the highest fungal population was detected in Chechela (Zone 3) with 1.94 log10 Cfu/m3. There was significant difference between the microbial populations obtained during 15 and 30 minute of Exposure. The susceptibility of the bacterial isolates against commonly used antibiotics tested showed varying degree of susceptibility. Staphylococcus, the most predominant airborne bacteria was found resistance to all antimicrobial agents and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in air may cause serious health hazard to the people living in this area