Phenol is a toxic pollutant that is produced naturally as well as synthetically in the environment. Several studies were conducted worldwide to isolate microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi that are capable of degrading phenols. In this study, bacterial species from soil samples were screened and isolated for their phenol degradation ability. Selected colonies were screened for phenol tolerance at various phenol concentrations ranging from 10 to 140 mM/ml phenol concentrations. Eight isolates were found to be potent phenol-tolerators and were identified as Bacillus species. Of these, three Bacillus cereus strains named RM4, RM23 and RC29 showed maximum degradation to high concentrations of phenol. The strain RM23 could degrade 65.11% of phenol content in the MSPM medium containing 10 mM/ml phenol. RM4 showed a potential degradation of 33.33% in 40mM/ml concentration. It also exhibited degradation at 120 mM/ml concentration. Maximum degradation showed by RC29 was 38 % at 60 mM/ml. The optimum pH, temperature and incubation period for maximum phenol-degradation was found to be pH 7, temperature 370C, and three days of incubation.

Fishes are the significant source of high-quality protein, iodine, vitamins and minerals. Fishes can easily acquire pathogenic bacterial strains from water and act as the vehicle for transmission of pathogens to humans. The present study was designed to isolate bacteria that pose health risk to humans and the environment present in gills, gut and inhabited water samples of Labeo rohita, which was collected from different aquaculture farms in Bargarh district, Odisha. Bacteria were isolated using specific media and identification was performed based on phenotypic, biochemical tests and molecular approaches using genus-specific primers. In the present study, twelve bacterial strains have been isolated. The identification of bacterial isolates revealed that four isolates (FPA-1 to FPA-4) were identified as Aeromonas sp., four isolates (FPE-5 to FPE-8) as E. coli and the remaining four isolates (FPS-9 to FPS-12) were identified as Staphylococcus sp. These bacterial strains (Aeromonas sp., E. coli and Staphylococcus sp.) indicated the relative distribution of bacterial pathogens in fish samples, which could contribute significant threats to fish consuming communities. Unsafe fish handling and culturing might contribute to the prevalence of bacterial pathogens in fish.