The Diversity and Abundance of Soil Microorganisms within Three Snail Farm Locations

The study was undertaken to determine the diversity and abudance of soil microorganism within three snail farm locations designated a location L1, L2 and L3. Bacterial and Fungal isolates were identified by their cultural and morphological characteristics using established characters and the counts were determined using standard spread plate technique. Snail species reared on the farm were the giant African land snail. A total of 12 species of bacteria and 10 species of fungi were recorded at the three locations within the farm. The bacteria species were widely distributed. The highest number of bacteria was recorded in location L1 while the highest number of fungi species were recorded in L1 and L2. Bacillus was the most dominant bacteria species with the highest Relative Abundance recorded during the study while Aspergillus was the most dominant fungi species. Bacteria and fungi were typical of an environment with specie richness.