Bacteriological Quality of Aerial Ambient Air in Selected Creche and Daycare Centers in Ugbowo, Benin City

This research was conducted to evaluate the bacteriological quality of aerial ambient air in selected creche and daycare centers in Ugbowo, Benin City. Indoor air samples were collected (plates exposed for 30 and 45 minutes) from two daycare centers (SCH A and SCH B) and subjected to bacteriological analyses. The airborne bacterial burden, characterization, antibiogram and multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index were evaluated. Multiple comparisons (Turkey test) were used to analyze collected data. Results revealed significantly higher bacterial count for plates exposed for and 45 min over 30 min. more so, there was no difference (P>0.05) between plates incubated for 24 h and 48 h. The bacterial count for ranged between 0.1850 to 0.4444 × 10³cfu/m³ and 0.3704 to 0.3889 × 10³cfu/m³ for SCH A and Sch B respectively. Comparing an enriched with a general purpose medium, bacterial count for Columbia blood agar was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the later. E. coli, Bacillus, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas were found in the indoor air of SCH A and B classrooms. Following sanitary standards, there were intermediate to high level of contamination for SCH A and B during period of class activities. The antibiogram of the isolates revealed that they were susceptible to gentamicin while resistance was seen in most of the tested antibiotics thus confirming that these isolates were multiresistant. All isolated bacteria were found to have MAR index greater than 0.2. This further connotes that the pathogens were from high sources of contamination and have a public health importance.