The Pattern of Environmental Conditions and Genomic Typing of Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in selected Farm Settlements in Ogun State, Nigeria

Low attention has been given to environmental health and the impacts of agricultural farming activities on the microbial quality of the surrounding air. This study assessed the bacteria and fungi in the indoor and outdoor air of seven farm settlements in Ogun State. The study used the settle-plate technique characterized by phenotypic and genomic methods through the isolation of genomic DNA, PCR amplification and sequencing of 16S rRNA and ITS genes. The nucleotide sequences of the isolates were assembled, aligned, and compared with the GenBank database at NCBI using the BLAST search tool. Results showed a total of 39 distinct bacteria colonies with 29 (74.4%) gram-positive and 10 (25.6%) gram negative and 17 fungal isolates belonging to different genera and species. The indoor air of Ikenne had the most diverse bacteria in the morning (21) and evening (22), while the outdoor of Ado-Odo displayed the highest number of diverse bacteria both in the morning (21) and evening (19) during the wet season. However, during the dry season, the indoor air of Ibiade and Ado-Odo had the most diverse bacteria in the morning (16) and evening (18), respectively while the outdoor air revealed highest in Ado Odo (17) in the morning and at Ado-Odo and Ikenne (13) in the evening. Farm settlements may be a potential source of pathogenic organisms to communities, especially where personal hygiene and sanitation are not adequately maintained. This study recommends that environmental conditions of farm settlements should be given utmost attention to prevent the proliferation of pathogenic organisms and outbreak of diseases.