MICROBIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF OPENED SOFT DRINK BOTTLES FOR PATHOGENIC BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH DRINKING DIRECTLY FROM THE ORIFICE.

Four types of carbonated soft drinks encoded as A, B, C and D; and bottled and sealed water E (used as control) were bought from a student restaurant in the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt Nigeria. The area of the orifice and neck of the bottles usually placed in the mouth while drinking directly from the bottles was analyzed in triplicates for the impinging bacterial species. Of the eighty-three morphologically identified aerobic isolates the percent frequency of occurrence was: Staphylococcus aureus (38.4%), Bacillus and other gram-positive rods (36.0 %), Enterococcus sp (12.0 %), Micrococcus spp (8.4% each), and Proteus and Pseudomonas spp (2.4% each). The Standard Plate Count expressed as the Colony Forming Units (CFU) indicated a range of 5.3 x 10 ³ to 2.6.0 x 10 ⁴ CFU ml^-1 of the rinsate of the orifice and neck of the soft-drink bottles. The preponderance of the indicator organisms:  Coagulase positive S. aureus and the Enterococci sp is used to infer the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria. The need for public health enlightenment on the packaging and safe conduits for the distribution of soft drinks was discussed.