Evaluation of Pathogenic Potentials of Microbial Contaminants from Naira Notes in Nigeria

The study was done to determine burden of fiat currencies. A total of Six hundred and twenty four pieces of different denominations of naira notes obtained from banks in Enugu metropolis and samples of nose swabs aseptically collected from fifty two note counters from those banks were examined for similar bacterial and fungal contaminants. All sequences were identified using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) on National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website. While the fungi amplicons yielded DNA bands of approximately 650 base pair, that of the bacterial isolates were approximately 850 base pair. Proteus mirabilis (NR11449.1) and Escherichia coli (LN831043.1) were identical and selected from the bacterial category while Aspergillus fumigatus (MK910068), Aspergillus flavus (JQ860302) and Aspergillus niger (MK461093) were identical and selected from the fungal category. Rats inoculated orally with Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis presented with watery stool and reduction of weight by 16+0.4g after two weeks of commencement of inoculation. They showed reduction in activity and reduced locomotion when compared with the control. There were no physically observable changes in the other test groups. In the hematological investigation, the mean PCV in % were 39±1.0 for the E. coli, 40±0.4 for P. mirabilis, 35±0.2 for A. niger, 40±0.7 for A. fumigatus and 37±0.1 for A .flavus. These varied significantly at p<0.05 with the control which has mean PCV of 45±0.3. The differential leucocyte count showed a marked increase in the % neutrophil (E. coli 73±0.1, P. mirabilis 70±0.1, A. niger 78±1.1, A. fumigatus 59±0.3 and A. flavus 62±1.0) when compared with the control rats with percentage neutrophil of 20±0.2. There was also an increase in the white blood cell count of the test groups when compared with the control. Histopathological study of the lungs of the rats inoculated nasally with Aspergillus niger showed necrosis of the alveolar epithelium. This study has shown that naira notes could be a reservoir of microorganisms of medical importance which in turn could become vectors for the transmission of diseases in the society.