Bacteriological Analyses of Fish Mucus from Fish Market with Reference to Consumer’s Health
Niharika P. Shah *
Department of Aquatic Biology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India.
N. C. Ujjania
Department of Aquatic Biology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India.
Yash H. Mer
Department of Aquatic Biology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A study was conducted to evaluate the bacteria load present in fish mucus collected from Nanpura wholesale fish market during the period from 30th December 2022 to 20th February 2023. Total 20 fish mucus samples were determined by Total Plate Count (TPC) and identification of bacteria. High bacterial load with pathogens such as Escherichia coli (Gram negative bacteria) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram positive bacteria) were found in all fresh and marine fish samples from study area. These pathogens can survive and multiply in fish, transferred into consumer by way of food and main source of fish poisoning, diarrhoea, meningitis and septicemia which cause health risk to consumer. The fishes were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria indicated poor handling of fishes, lack of preservation facility and unhygienic condition of study area. Thus, it is strongly recommended to improve the quality control and quality assurance systems of the study area to minimize the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria.
Keywords: Wholesale fish market, total plate count, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Septicemia