MICROBIAL EXAMINATION OF SPOILED AVOCADO FRUIT

Microbial examination of spoilt Avocado fruits was carried out to obtained the causal organism. A total of 60 avocado from Ogbete Main market and New market Enugu were examined by culturing on nutrient agar and sabourand dextrose agar (SM), for bacteria and fungi causing post – harvest spoilage on the fruits; six bacterial species and six fungal species were isolated. The bacteria include Erwinia SP (66.7%), Streptococcus sp, *25%), E. Coli (18.9%) and staphycoccus sp (33.3%), Pseudomonas sp (20%) and Chromobacterium sp (5%) has the lowest percentage occurrence, Erwinia sp, Pseudomonas sp and chromobacterium sp were found to be absent in the control. The fungi species, includes Aspergillus sp (50%), Pericillium sp (25%), Fusarium sp (16.6%), Rhisopus sp (13.3%), currularia sp (8.3%) and Rhoctorula sp (3.3%), were also kolated Avocado fruits from Ogbete main market were more contaminated than the avocado form the new market.