Repetitive enrichment of soils samples from an agricultural land and newly
marked dumpsite on electrical transformer fluid yielded six bacterial species
that have the capacity to utilize electrical transformer fluids (askarel) as carbon
and energy source. Bacterial species namely: Micrococcus, Arthrobacter,
Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas spp, Norcadia and Corynebacterium
were identified using morphological and biochemical characteristics. The
abilities of these bacterial species to utilize the electrical transformer fluids
as carbon source in minimal salt medium (MSM); sub cultured in concentrations
of 5, 10, 15 and 20μL of electrical transformer fluids were investigated
for twenty‐one days period. Physiological changes in terms of biomass increase
were monitored by measuring the pH and optical density of the culture
medium. From the results obtained, there was observed a general decrease
in the pH and increase in Optical density (O.D). The mean pH and O.D
readings ranged between (4.34‐6.13 and 0.073‐0.386) respectively. The decreased
pH could justify for the acidic metabolites produced in the course of
utilization of askarel as growth substrates. This study suggested that, the
tropical ecosystems can provide exotic bacterial species that are capable of
degrading or mineralizing polychlorinated biphenyls and their derivatives
from dumpsites and agricultural soils
