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ABSTRACT
The atmosphere is filled with abundant airborne spores which are produced by air spores in the environment. Air is a source that supplies us with oxygen which is essential for our bodies to live. Airborne bacterial from Chemistry Departmental Offices, University of Benin was investigated. Using the settle plate method, the samples were collected in triplicate for three weeks. Nutrient agar and Mueller-Hinton agar were used for the culturing of bacteria. Isolated pathogens were subsequently assessed for antibiotic resistance to common antibiotics using Kirby-Bauer Disc Diffusion method. Airborne bacteria isolated from Staff office ranged from 4.19 x 102 - 7.49 x 10 2 cfu/m2 while airborne bacteria isolated from Head of Department office ranged from 1.88 x 102 - 7.85 x 102 cfu/m2 . Bacterial isolated include four (4) Gram-positive; Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus spp., Bacillus spp. and Enterococcus spp. and two (2) Gram-negative bacteria; Proteus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. with Staphylococcus aureus being the most prevalent bacterial isolate (66%) while Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Enterococcus spp. were the least occurring bacterial isolates with 16.6%. Staphylococcus aureus had the highest zone of inhibition against cefuroxime (30mm) and least zone of inhibition against cefexime (8mm). Bacillus spp was 12 resistant to all the tested antibiotics except cefuroxime and ceftriaxone with multiple antibiotic resistant index of 0.8 while Enterococcus spp was the least antibiotic resistant bacterial isolate with multiple antibiotic resistant index of 0.2. It could be inferred that airborne bacterial plays significant role in the spread of common infections. It is advisable that strict measures should be put in place to check the increasing microbial load in the public offices.
