Published Online: Mar 03, 2015
Page range: 165 - 175
Received: Feb 12, 2014
Accepted: Jul 15, 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aoas-2014-0062
© by Beata Trawińska
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
The objective of the study was to assess microbial contamination of soil collected in a swine farm and manure from animals housed there depending on the season of the year and the sampling site. The study was conducted from October to September. The soil samples were taken immediately at the pig house wall (GI), and at the distance of 15 m (GII) and 45 m (GIII) from the house wall. Besides, manure samples were collected inside the pig housing facility: at the entrance to the pig house (KI) and at 1/4 (KII) and 1/2 length of the animal facility (KIII). The soil and manure samples underwent qualitative and quantitative bacteriological evaluation. The study was conducted according to the procedure laid out in the Polish Standards. There was also assessed air temperature and relative moisture, air motion and cooling as well as sample moisture in the sampling site. The greatest number of all studied bacteria was determined in soil collected 15 m from the piggery (GII) in December/January. The highest coli titre (0.0001) was also established in the samples (GII) at that time. The qualitative analysis of soil showed solely the presence of E. coli bacteria which were recovered in the GII soils taken from November to May. The largest bacterial load in swine manure was determined in the samples collected at 1/2 length of the pig house (KII) at the end of December and January. The growth of all the analysed microbes was favoured by sample moisture, while air relative moisture prompted development of psychrophilic and proteolytic bacteria. E. coli were isolated in manure samples throughout the entire research period, whereas Enterobacter spp. were detected in the KI and KII samples from June to August and in KII samples from June to September. The winter period was shown to affect significantly microbial contamination of swine farm environment as at that time the highest bacterial load was determined in soil and manure. This is most likely to be associated with the climatic and microclimatic conditions observed in those days.