Effect of Different Concentrations of Bacillus cereus and its Bacteriocin on Some Hematological Indices of Wistar rats

Bacillus is an interesting genus to investigate since it produces a diverse array of antimicrobial peptides representing several different basic chemical structures. The production of bacteriocins or bacteriocinlike substance has already been described for B. substilis, B. stearothermophilus and other Bacillus sp. The present study assessed the effects of Bacillus cereus and its bacteriocin at different concentrations on the hematological parameters of male and female Wistar rats. For the acute intramuscular toxicity test, 10 Wister rats were randomly divided into five groups of two each. Each group constitutes a male and a female rat. The first and second group received Bacillus cereus at doses equivalent to 10 and 10 CFU while the third and fourth groups received the bacteriocin of the bacilli organism at the same concentration. The fifth group was used as the control and was given distill water. Blood samples were collected for hematology at day 0, 2, 10 and 15. The body weights before and after the experimental period were also noted. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the degree of significance between the baseline and subsequent days at p<0.05. There were no pathologic significant hematologic changes in the treated group. However, it was observed that lower concentration of Bacillus cereus and its bacteriocin is preferred to higher concentration of the Bacilli organism and its bacteriocin.