EVALUATION OF THE MICROBIOLOGICAL STATUS OF SPENT LAYERS CHICKEN

ABSTRACT

Black and chilli pepper are one of the important spice rich in aromatic and medicinal components along with appreciable levels of several other functional components having health promoting properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the increasing levels (2, 4%) of black and chilli pepper as seasoning on spent layer chicken on it's microbial stability. A total of four spent layer were procured and dressed. Microbiological quality of the samples were determined using serial dilution and cultural media  for isolation and identification of bacteria and fungi. Chicken samples were treated with chilli pepper, black pepper and black and chilli pepper at 2% and 4% each. Aliquot of 1ml of the appropriate dilution from each contaminated water was placed in nutrient agar for isolation of bacteria, potato dextrose agar for isolation of fungi. All were analyzed for total heterotrophic bacteria count and total fungal count. The samples including the control had a mean total aerobic plate counts ranging from 7.14 ×10² cfu/g to 1.73 ×10³ cfu/g and 2.88 × 10² cfu/g to 5.62 × 10³ for fungi count. Using a 5% level of significance, the statistical analysis of the microbial count shows that there was no significant difference.  Thus, this study revealed that with increasing application of black and chilli pepper, microbial load reduces.