Seasonal variation in bacteriological count between native and exotic climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1972) from North-Eastern Bangladesh

SEASONAL VARIATION OF BACTERIAL LOAD IN CLIMBING PERCH

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the seasonal variation of bacterial population in native and exotic climbing perch, Anabas testudineus from the North-Eastern region of Bangladesh. For this purpose, ten fish markets were selected randomly considering two seasons- explicitly in winter (December-February) and summer (March-May). Live fish were collected, and bacterial loads were analysed at 6-12 days interval during the experimental period. The higher bacterial load i.e. total viable count (TVC) was observed during summer whereas lower TVC was observed in winter irrespective of markets and varieties of climbing perch. For both strains, the highest TVC was noted in summer (April: temperature 36.30C) and lowest in winter (February: temperature 180C) indicating that the seasonal variation of TVC is highly correlated to temperature fluctuation in summer and winter. It is assumed that the optimum temperature with high relative humidity during summer season accelerated the growth of bacterial populations than those of winter. The present study revealed that, although bacterial load in winter did comply with ICMSF (International Commission on Microbiological Specification of Food) standard, however TVC in summer season didn’t comply with ICMSF standard. It can be concluded that the higher bacterial count in summer that fails to comply with the ICMSF standard may pose an alarming threat for the export of fishery products and food safety issues in Bangladesh.