Chapter One
1.0 Introduction
Poultry feed is food for farm poultry including chickens ducks, geese and other domestic birds Feed for poultry mostly consists of grain (Dietert et al., 1994). A portion of commercial feed, typically around a quarter, is known as bulk and is indigestible. The amount of bulk is referred to as bulk density (Maciomwski et al., 2004). The quantity of feed, and the nutritional requirements of the feed, depend on the weight and the age of the poultry as well as the season. Healthy poultry require a sufficient amount of protein and carbohydrates, along with the necessary vitamins, dietary minerals, and an adequate supply of water (WHO,2000). Certain diets also require the use of grit, tiny rocks such as pieces of granite, in the feed. (Jrit aids in digestion by grinding food as it passes through the gizzard (Maciorowski ci al., 2004). The feed must remain clean and dry; contaminated feed can infect poultry. Damp feed encourages fungal growth. Mycotoxin poisoning as an example is ‘one of the most common and certainly most underreported causes of toxicoses in poultry’ (Maciorowski et al., 2004). Diseases can be avoided with proper maintenance of the feed and feeder. For privately’ raised chickens, or chickens as pets feed can be delivered through jar, trough or tube feeders. The use of poultry feed can also be supplemented with food found through foraging. In industrial agriculture, machinery is used to automate the feeding process reducing the cost and increasing the scale of fanning.
In an effort to achieve rapid animal growth to meet the increasing demand for animal large quantities of nitrogenous waste fortified with other supplements such as spent grain cassava waste, hone meal etc. are compounded as animal feed, as one of the sources of microorganisms to animals. Specifically, some of the additives have been incriminated amongst the principal sources of bacteria of public health concern (Ogbulie and Okpokwasili 1998). Various types of farmed animal diseases such as diarrhoeal diseases like bacillary dysentery, amoebic dysentery, fowl cholerae etc., Salmonellosis, staphylococcosis, colibacillosis, erysipelas, listeriosis etc have been traced to the contamination of animal feed (Healing and Greenwood, 1991). A potential and more deadly hazard has been associated with the consumption ‘of microbial toxins of bacterial and fungal origin in feed (Gilbert, 1995). Studies elsewhere have associated some animal feeds with toxigenic strains of fungi and bacteria of public health concern (Bilgran-i et al, 1995; White and Torman, 1995). Considering the health hazard posed to animal/poultry and the unsuspecting consumers of such contaminated feeds and its overwhelming socioeconomic impact.
Plants are known to have beneficial activity of the therapeutic effect. The search for newer sources of antibiotics is a global challenge preoccupying research institutions, pharmaceutical companies and academia, since many infectious agents are becoming resistant to synthetic drugs (Latha and Kannabrian, 2006). Infectious diseases are the world’s major threat to human health and account for almost 50,000 deaths every day. The situation has further been complicated with the rapid development of multidrug resistance by microorganisms to the antimicrobial agents available. According to a research, there are 422,127 plant species growing on earth. Among them about 35, 000 to 70,000 plant species are used as medicinal plants. The medicinal value of plant lies in some chemical substances (Plant secondary metabolites) that produce specific biological action in the human body (Hassan et al., 2009). Therefore many studies and researches had been carried-out on the antimicrobial properties of many plants but for this study, the leaf, of Jatropha curcas hospital too-far and scent Ocimum gratissimum will be investigated to ascertain their effectiveness against the microorganisms isolated from poultry feed.
1.1 Aim of Research
This research is therefore designed to identify and characterize the bacterial and fungal in poultry feeds and antimicrobial effect on the isolates.
1.2 Objective of Research
- To isolate and identify microorganisms associated with poultry feed
- To determine antibiotics susceptibility profile of isolated organisms
- To determine the efficacy of hospital too-far Jatropha curcas and scent Ocimum gratissimum