Isolation and identification of microbial contamination of paper currecncy collected from local night markets in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Paper currency is suggested to be a potential vehicle for microbial transmission. This study focused on isolating and identifying the possible pathogens that can be found on the surface of Malaysian ringgit. Sixty sample of five denominations were randomly collected from three-night markets from Shah Alam. The samples collected were separated according to three subcategories; meat, seafood and vegetable vendors. Microbiological procedures were adapted from Tamalli et al. (2012) and samples were inoculated into Nutrient agar, Mannitol Salt agar and MacConkey agar, then subjected to gram staining and biochemical testing using Analytical Profile Index kits. In this study, the Staphylococcus aureus spp. was the most commonly isolated bacterium with the isolation rate of 34%, 20% being S. epidermidis which classifies under the normal flora of the skin of humans and animals similarly, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. was isolated from this study with an isolation rates of 16% and 14% respectively which is an indication of poor hygiene practices of local night market vendors and further proves that money can harbour potential pathogenic bacteria.