COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE BACTERIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF NEW NAIRA NOTES AND SOME NIGERIA CURRENCIES IN CIRCULATION

The comparative study of the bacteriological quality of new naira notes and naira currencies in circulation was carried out with a view to access the bacteriological quality of the Nigerian currency note in Nigeria and to compare the bacteria load between mint notes and dirty notes in circulation. The naira notes comprising of all denomination were collected from different chosen occupational groups in Ozoro town (for dirty naira notes), while the mint was collected from a commercial bank in Ozoro. The notes were surveyed for bacterial contaminant using dilution method. The bacteria isolated from the notes were Esherichia coli (33.3%), Salmonella sp (50%), Streptococcus sp (50%), Staphylococcus aureus (33.3%), Proteus mirabilis (50%), Micrococcus sp (50%) and Psuedomonas aeruginosa (50%). The total bacteria count ranges from 3.6 x104CFU/ML to 9.6 x104CFU/ML. Lower denomination notes were more contaminated than higher denomination notes. Dirty and wrinkled notes had more contaminants than the mint notes. This study has demonstrated that naira could be a source of contamination by microbial pathogen. Key words: Naira notes, Bacteriological, quality, comparative study