Occurrence of aerobic pathogenic actinomycetes in natural substrates in Nigeria

Three hundred and six samples of diverse natural substrates were investigated for the presence of aerobic pathogenic actinomycetes by paraffin baiting technique. Nocardia asteroides was the commonest species, being recovered from 8.5 per cent of the sample, followed by Nocardiopsis dassonvillei (6.5 per cent) and N. Otitidis-caviarum (4.2 per cent). Other species isolated were Rhodococcus sputi (0.65 per cent) and R. rhodochrous (0.92 per cent). All the identified species are known to be pathogenic to man