Assessment of Psychrotrophic Bacteria in frozen fish with special reference to Pseudomonas Species

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Benha University

2 Department of Microbiology, Animal Health Research, Dokki

Abstract

Frozen fish exposed to many risks of contamination during long chain of catching, transportation,
dressing and freezing from different sources till they reach to consumers which make it harmful or
unfit for human consumption.
A total of 150 random samples of frozen fish of Mackerel, Saurus, Mugil Cephalus, Horse
Mackerel and Sardine (30 of each) were collected from different fish markets at Kaliobia
Governorate for determination of Psychrotrophic, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas count in frozen
fish samples. The mean value of Psychrotrophic , Pseudomonas and Aeromonas count (cfu/g) were
5.11x105 ±2.4x105, 9.92X104 ± 4.8 x 104 and 4.8 x 104 ± 1.17 x 104 in Mackerel, 1.18x105
±2.9x104, 1.76 X 105 ± 6.16 x 104 and 4.78 x 104 ± 2.07 x 104 in Saurus, 8.90x104 ±3.4x104, 6.35x
104 ± 3.9 x 104 and 9.18 x 102 ± 2.6 x 102 in Mugil Cephalus, 2.67x104 ±1.26x104, 9.35 x 102 ±
2.08 x 102 and 7.96 x 102 ± 1.73 x 102 in Horse Mackerel, 3.58x104 ±1.17x104,6.87x 102 ± 1.14 x
102 and 6.17x 102 ± 1.35 x 102 in Sardine, respectively. There were observed significant
difference (P<0.05) between examined samples. Moreover ,the result obtained showed that
Mackerel is the most contaminated fish with Psychrotrophic and Aeromonas bacteria. However,
Saurus is the most contaminated fish with Pseudomonas followed by Mackerel , Mugil Cephalus,
Horse Mackerel and finally Sardine. From the obtained results it could be concluded that the most
prevalence Psychrotrophic bacteria isolated from frozen fish samples were Pseudomonas,
Aeromonas followed by Achromobacter and these bacteria consider a major factor for the spoilage
of fish or be a health hazard.

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