Bacterial infection/invasion in fish flesh

Abstract

SummaryExperiments with mechanical treatment of trout have been carried out to show whether there exists any correlation between the stress of the animal before death and the level of bacterial infection in the flesh and/or the quality of the fish determined by organoleptic assessment.The quality and keeping time of the trout is reduced when the fish is exposed to physical stress. The reduction increases with increasing mechanical treatment and is bigger in feeding than in starving fish.The infection level in the fish muscle increases with increasing physical stress and is higher for feeding than for starving trout.When the count of bacteria is higher than 100/g there is a very good correlation between the log count and the organoleptic score.