## 3 Results  
* Total viable counts of the target bacterial species in the influent manure are presented in Table 1 below. Presumptive _E. coli_ counts was in the order of 2.0 \(\times\) 10\({}^{6}\)\(\pm\) 8.7 \(\times\) 10\({}^{5}\) cfu/g, while presumptive _Salmonella_ was in the order 2.7 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\)\(\pm\) 2.5 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\) cfu/g and _Campylobacter_ species counts was in the order of 3.4 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\)\(\pm\) 4.2 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\) cfu/g. * Overall, following the morphological and biochemical characterisation, a total of 83 bacterial isolates were obtained comprising of 16 _Campylobacter_ species, 30 _E. coli_, 33 _Salmonella_ and 4 _Shigella_ species that were then subjected to an antibiotic sensitivity study. Of all the _Campylobacter_ isolates, 4 isolates were confirmed as _C. jejuni_ following the hydrolysis of sodium hippurate. The percentages of sensitive and resistant bacteria isolate to the antibiotics used are shown in Table 2 and the values varied with the type of bacteria. * All the bacterial isolates belonging to the family _Enterobacteriaceae_ exhibited a striking sensitivity to ciprofloxacin but varying levels of resistance to the other antibiotics. Nevertheless, the _Campylobacter_ sp. belonging to the family _Campylobacteriaceae_ demonstrated marked sensitivity of 87.5% to both tetracycline and chloramphenicol and a resistance of same magnitude (87.5%) to co-trimoxazole. * The MAR index is presented in Table 3. Multiple antibiotic resistance is considered as resistance of a bacterial isolate to three or more antibiotics. A total of 48.19% (40/83) of the bacterial isolates were characterised as multi-resistant strains (MAR \(>\) 0.2) as they exhibited resistance to \(\geq\) 3 antibiotics. The MAR index varied with the bacterial species, but ranged from 0.3 to 1. 75% of _Shigella_ species displayed MAR \(>\) 0.2 while 23.33% of _E. coli_ species exhibited MAR \(>\) 0.2. In addition, the MAR phenotypes among the 40 multidrug resistant isolates varied as represented in Table 4. Of all the bacterial species isolated, 37.5% (15) showed multidrug resistance to 3 antibiotics. Only a small percentage of 2.12% (1) showed a 10 MAR pattern which indicated resistance to all the antibiotics employed in this study, a situation that merits attention due to the possibility of horizontal gene transfer. * Based on the bacterial pathogen, the predominant phenotypes were AP-A-GM-E-AUG, A-E-AP and A-E-TS at 15.79% for _Salmonella_ sp. ; TS-E-NA-CIP-GM and TS-NA-AUG-A at 18.18% for _Campylobacter_ sp. ; C-T-E at 42.86 for _E. coli_ and C-AUG-T-A-E at 66.57% for _Shigella_ sp. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline
**Parameter** & **Values** \\ \hline _Escherichia coli_ & 2.0 \(\times\) 10\({}^{6}\) \(\pm\) 8.7 \(\times\) 10\({}^{5}\) cfu/g \\ _Salmonella_ sp. & 2.7 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\) \(\pm\) 2.5 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\) cfu/g \\ _Campylobacter_ sp. & 3.4 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\) \(\pm\) 4.2 \(\times\) 10\({}^{4}\) cfu/g \\ _Shigella_ sp. & ND \\ \% moisture content & 88.8\% \\ \% total solids & 11.2\% \\ \% total volatile solids & 61.5\% \\ \% ash content & 32.5\% \\ pH & 6.6 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Characteristic properties of influent manure fed into the bio-digester.