Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research

Abstract: A survey was conducted to determine the quantity of local preservatives (‘Abafe’ Piliostigma thonnigii and ‘Agehu’ Khaya ivorensis leaves) used for parboiling yam and the anti-microbial effect of the leaves on dry- yam ‘Gbodo’. Although, the study revealed that 23 g of abafe, 13 g of agehu and a combination of 12.8 g of abafe and 12.3 g of agehu will be required for 1 kg of yam, there were wide ranges between the quantities of yam as well as the quantities of local preservatives used by the processors. Futhermore…

Abstract: The preliminary investigation revealed the prevalence of 138(46.9%) out of 294 volunteers screened for the ova of Schistosoma haematobium in their urine samples. Of these, 84(28.6%) had light infection (50 ova/10 ml urine), while 54(18.4%) had heavy infection (> 50 ova/10 ml urine). This difference was statistically significant at ( 2 = 6.52, p > 0.05). The mean immunoglobulin status were as follow: IgE (2141.6 ± 143.7 ng/dL), IgG (13.6 ± 3.53 mg/dL), IgA (3.72 ± 0.149 mg/dL), IgM (2.82 ± 0.48 mg/dL) and IgD (0.12…

Abstract: A microbial medium, designated DYSP medium, was produced from food wastes that included defatted soya, clear beer spent yeast, potato solid waste and opaque beer spent grains. Various combinations of the food wastes were used for the media formulations and evaluated for extent of supporting microbial growth of pure cultures. A 3.0 M sodium hydroxide hydrolysis followed by a neutralization process using concentrated hydrochloric acid has been established and standardized for the preparation of the medium. A dry pulv…

Abstract: A survey of the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Staphylococcus aureus strains from clinical and skin isolates grown at 37 and 44oC respectively were carried out in Irrua Nigeria. Of the 240 different specimens, 50(20.8%) S. aureus isolates were reported. The highest carrier rate of S. aureus (48%) occurred in wound swab while the least (8.0%) was reported on the healthy skin of the volunteers. The susceptibility of the clinical isolates (10.4%) was lower than the isolates from the skin (36.7%) of the volunteer…

Abstract: The active components of leaves of Mangifera indica L. were extracted using cold water and organic solvents (acetone and methanol) and were tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenase, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aerugenosa, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella typhi and Shigella flexnerri using the agar well (cup plate) diffusion method. Both the acetone and methanol extracts inhibited the growth of gram positive bacteria, with acetone extract exerting more a…

Abstract: During the winter of 2006, outbreaks of severe entritis affected many broiler farms in the AL-Fayoum governorate, south of Cairo, Egypt. To identify the causative agent(s), bacterial isolates (14) from the diseased chickens were characterized phenotypically and biochemically. All isolates exhibited characteristics of Clostridium perfringens. Subsequently, molecular typing of the bacterial isolates was performed by multiplex PCR using four sets of primers specific for the genes encoding the C. perfringens , , and to…

Abstract: Ethanolic extracts of the leaf, stem and root bark and the combination of the three parts of Anogeissus leiocarpus were investigated for in vitro antibacterial activity against clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using agar diffusion techniques. The extracts of the plant parts showed higher antibacterial activity against S. aureus (15.80 ± 0.85) than other tested organisms. The plant parts generally were found to contain important bioactive substances such as glyc…

Abstract: Antigenic variation is a process by which pathogenic micro-organisms escape the immune response of their mammalian hosts. By convergent evolution, protozoal, fungal and bacterial pathogens have developed similar genetic mechanisms for true antigenic variation. In this review article, the biology, the surface antigens and their encoding genes, and the molecular mechanisms of antigenic variation of the protozoa Trypanosoma brucei, Plasmodium falciparum, Babesia bovis, Giardia lamblia, the fungus Pneumocystis carinii…

Abstract: We screened 211 clinical samples of which total of 135 Escherichia coli isolates from different human clinical specimens comprising urine, stool, wound swabs, high vaginal swabs, ear swabs and blood obtained from patients at Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. The isolated E. coli were screened for their antibiograms and plasmid profiles. Seven antimicrobial drugs were used during the study. The prevalence of strains resistance to antimicrobials were; Tetracycline (91.6%), Amp…

Abstract: Ethanol production using jaggery was enhanced in submerged fermentation when the effect of metal inducers was studied using the Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken designs. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (NCIM 3288) was used as the fermenting organism. The Plackett-Burman design was used to initially screen seven of which the four elements were found to have significant effect on ethanol production. In the next stage, Box-Behnken design was used obtain concentrations of metal ion’s that may be supplemented to get maximum eth…

Abstract: We evaluated the antioxidant status of 148 Nigerian children with Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The mean malarial parasitaemia was 4701.05 ± 2160.53/µL. The mean antioxidant concentrations of the infected children were determined for vitamin A (12.16 ± 1 - 16 µg/dL), vitamin C (0.43 ± 0.03 mg/dL), 5 carotenes (40.96 ± 5.38 µg/dL), and vitamin E (0.45 ± 0.03 mg/dL) . The control subjects had higher mean concentrations of vitamin A (72.12 ± 3.12 µg/dL), and of the 5 carotenes (132.63 ± 22.45 µg/dL), and these differ…

Abstract: Due to reported cases of antimicrobial resistance by many pathogenic bacteria against many antibiotics worldwide, and the sparse nature of antimicrobial resistance data, a retrospective study was carried out on 744 isolates of Salmonella typhi obtained from 974 samples from four different hospitals in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria between 2001-2004 to determine the resistance pattern of S. typhi to the most commonly used antibiotics cotrimoxazole, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol and ampicillin. High rates of resistan…

Abstract: Conditioning of cultures involves growing cells in the presence of increasing amounts of a toxic chemical. In order to investigate how conditioning affects a culture’s ability to resist new challenges, the resistance of Trichosporon cutaneum to various toxic chemicals, before and after conditioning to growth on phenol, was investigated by measuring the capacitance of cell suspensions at 0.4 MHz following a toxic challenge. The results show that cells grown on phenol are more resistant to the influence of polar arom…

Abstract: The potential for waterborne disease and zoonotic transmission of at least two species of human pathogenic microsporidia has heightened interest in clinical and environmental detection methods for these organisms. Detection using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by computer database homology comparison (CDHC) (PCR-CDHC) was reported previously by this research group. As a result, PCR-CDHC has been employed by many research groups around the world for species determination of human pathogenic microsporid…