Bacterial Occurrence in Wild And Cultured Clarias Gariepinus From Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

An important cause of contamination in fisheries and aquaculture products is bacteria. They continue to be a major impediment towards obtaining sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production. They cause several public health hazards that producers, marketers, and consumers of food fish are deeply concerned about. The current study assessed the occurrence of bacteria in Clarias gariepinus from Yola, Adamawa state, Nigeria. Thirty (30) C. gariepinus were collected from the wild and a fish farm. Physicochemical measurements of the water were made at the time of the fish collection. The fish samples collected were transported to the laboratory for bacteriological analysis. Tissues were collected from the stomach, liver, and gills of the sampled fish and isolated for the occurrence of bacteria in them. The isolated bacteria were identified and characterized. The data that were collected were subjected to descriptive statistics analysis. The tissues of the examined C. gariepinus contained bacterial species including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Staphylococcus sp., Enterobacter cloacae, Streptococcus iniae, Citrobacter diversus, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas mallei, and Yersinia entrocolitica. The occurrence of these bacteria in the tissues of the fish samples examined raises possible public health concerns about fish and fish products from the lake and fish farm under investigation.