Isolation, Characterization and Identification of Bacteria Associated with Freshly Collected Quail Eggs in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria

Quail eggs are considered a delicacy which are taken raw by most consumers with the aim of deriving all the nutritional constituent and medicinal benefit. This research focused on the microbial load of the sampled eggs and the identity of the isolated organisms. Sixty (60) eggs were collected from 5 different farms, analyzed microbiologically and the organisms identified. It was found that 18.33% of the quail eggs were sterile, 28.33% of the eggs carried coliform and 11.67% of the eggs carried salmonella. The average microbial load of the quail eggs for the farms ranged from 0.0CFU/ml in sterile eggs to 2.87x102CFU/ml in heavily loaded eggs. All of the farm have coliform while 4 out of the 5 farms produced eggs that carries salmonella. The organisms isolated in the eggs are Salmonella sp, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas sp and Proteus