Food borne disease associated with inappropriately treated or untreated eggs is a major public health problem affecting developing and developed countries. This study isolated, identified and determined the Antibiogram of bacteria isolates from eggshell of eggs obtained from three major markets in Minna, Nigeria. A total of ten (10) duplicate egg samples were purchased from egg retailers. The egg samples were analyzed for the enumeration and isolation of bacteria. The isolated bacteria were identified using biochemical methods. Antibiotic susceptibility test to prescribed commercially available antibiotic discs was also investigated. The total viable bacteria count (TVBC) ranged from 1.38×104 - 2.52×104 cfu/mL while the total coliform count (TCC) ranged from 8.5×103 - 2.02×104 cfu/mL. Escherichia coli (9.1%), Streptococcus pyogenes (4.5%), Enterococcus sp. (4.5%), Shigella sp. (13.6%), Salmonella sp. (13.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (36.4%), Clostridium sp. (9.1%) and Neisseria sp. (9.1%) were isolated and identified from eggshells. Gram positive bacteria showed highest sensitivity to gentamycin (100%) however, resist cloxacillin, ceftadizime and erythromycin (100%). Similarly, there was no ciprofloxacin resistant Gram-negative bacteria though E. coli, Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. isolated from eggshells were resistant to augmentin and amoxicillin. Further analysis of result revealed that all the isolated bacteria from eggshells were multidrug resistant except Neisseria sp. with multidrug resistant index greater than 0.2. The fact that these antibiotic resistant bacteria can be transferred to humans is of public health concern. Therefore, stringent use of public health regulations for cleaning eggs before retailing is advocated.

Vegetables are edible part of plants. A total of twenty five raw salad vegetables were collected and the microbiological assessment was made using pour plate method. The analysis was carried out on carrots, cucumber, cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes. The results obtained from this study revealed that the total heterotrophic viable bacterial counts, coliform counts and fungal counts for all the salad vegetables ranged from 1.4 × 10 6 -6.2 × 10 6 cfu/g, 1.1 × 10 6 -3.3 × 10 6 cfu/g and 2.1 × 10 3 -4.5 × 10 5 cfu/g respectively. The data were subjected to One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test which showed that there was significant difference (p <0.05) in the microbial load of each of the raw salad vegetables samples. The microbial isolates identified were E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas sp., Aspergillus niger, Mucor sp., Penicillium sp., Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium sp. Staphylococcus aureus and Aspergillus niger were predominant. This suggests that salad vegetables used in this study are of public health concern because, they harbours microorganisms that could be hazardous to human health. Hence consumers should practice appropriate hygiene during the preparation of salad for consumption.

Metals are non-biodegradable and recurrent in the environs. Heavy metals tolerant fungi were isolated from refuse dumpsite soil using pour plate method. These fungi were identified as Aspergillus niger, Penicillium chrysogenum and Rhizomucor sp. The fungal isolates were screened for cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) with concentration of 200ppm, 400ppm and 600ppm. Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum showed high tolerance for the metals in contrast to the control. The fungi with high tolerance were used for biosorption study. However, Penicillium chrysogenum showed higher lead removal or biosorption potential of 1.07ppm, 3.35ppm and 4.19ppm as compared with Aspergillus niger with lead removal of 0.67ppm, 3.11ppm and 3.79ppm at 5th, 10th and 15th day respectively. One-way Analysis of Variance was used to interpret the data generated from the biosorption study which revealed that there was no significant different (p > 0.05) between the lead removal of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum on the 5th day but there was significant difference (p < 0.05) in the lead removal of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum on the 10th and 15th day. This study suggests the use of these fungal isolates for removal and biotreatment of heavy metal contaminated and polluted environment

This an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of death. Drug resistant tuberculosis has lately become a major public health problem that threatens progress made in Tuberculosis (TB) care and control worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Pre-extensive drug resistant TB among MDR TB in North Central of Nigeria. Methods: This study was conducted from October, 2018 to August, 2019 with 150 samples. In Nigeria, guidelines for DR-TB as recommended by WHO is followed. All the samples from the patients who gave their consent were transported to a zonal reference TB laboratory (ZRL). Results: Mean age was 38.6 ± 13.4 years with peak age at 35-44. Out of these 103 samples processed with LPA, 101(98%) were rifampicin resistant and 2 were rifampicin sensitive, 99(96%) were INH resistant and 4 (4%) were INH sensitive, 5(5%) were fluoroquinolone resistant, 98(95%) were fluoroquinolone sensitive, 12 (12%) were Aminoglycoside + Capreomycin resistant, 91(83%) were Aminoglycoside + Capreomycin sensitive. Conclusion: Multidrug resistant TB and its severe forms (Pre-extensive & extensively drug resistant TB) can be detected early with rapid tool- Line Probe Assay rapid and prevented timely by early initiation on treatment. Keywords: Pre-XDR TB; line probe assay in a high TB burden country.