Bio-risk in stingless bee honey: an assessment of microbial air quality surrounding meliponiculture farm with IMA standard at Marang and Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

Bacterial contamination in a product of stingless bee is a major risk factor for the increased incidence of honey contamination by pathogenic bacteria. The main aim of the study was to compare microbial air contamination in the different meliponiculture farm by settling plate method. In this study, the quality of air in the form of bacterial load in meliponiculture site was monitored. Two meliponiculture farms were studied weekly for a month and were divided into two factors; i) radius distance from the hive, and ii) time of harvesting. There was a comparable amount of bacterial load measured between both farms. Range of index of microbial air contamination (IMA) value of Farm I and Farm II were around 26-50 and above 76, indicating fair and poor performance of its air quality respectively. Thus, the location of meliponiculture farms that located near to the road and construction site could pose a threat to the stingless bee product by its airborne-risk.