Identification of Bacterial Contaminants of Bananas and Assessment of Their Population Dynamics in Relation to Temperature and Antibiotic Susceptibility

The study aimed to determine the bacterial contamination of banana taken directly from the car that brought banana from the field, and after storage at different temperatures (commercial refrigerator, laboratory refrigerator and lab temperature (35？C - 38？C)). The isolated bacteria genera were Klebseilla pneumonia, Klebseilla oxitoca, Bacillus cereus, staphylococcus aureus. The initial bacterial count from a banana sourced directly from the field was 23.2 × 10？ CFU/ml, compared to 33.65 × 10？ CFU/ml for a banana obtained from a commercial refrigerator. After five days of incubation at ambient laboratory temperature, the bacterial count increased by 11 × 10？ CFU/ml. In contrast, samples incubated in a laboratory refrigerator showed a smaller increase, with the count not exceeding 58.11 × 10？ CFU/ml. The antimicrobial sensitivities show that the tetracycline and ciprofloxacin have more effect to the tree genera, Klebseilla oxitoca, klebsiella pneumonia and Bacillus cereus (24, 23, 24.33 mm) respectively and Cipro (27, 32, 36.66 mm) respectively, but Novobiocin has an effect but less than tetracycline and ciprofloxacin (11, 13, 10.6 mm). Penicillin has no effect to Klebseilla oxitoca, klebsiella pneumonia, but has effect to Bacillus cereus (16.7 mm) while the Methicillin has no effect to the tree genera.