Market fish hygiene in Kenya

Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus was isolated from 53 out of 584 samples (9·1%) of market fish. All strains were Kanagawa negative and were distributed as follows: sea fish 5 out of 370 samples (1·4%), shellfish 48 out of 214 samples (22·4%). Other fish spoilage microflora recovered were: Alcaligenes faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Aeromonas spp. and Vibrio alginolyticus. Total aerobic counts and coliform counts per gram for the lake fish ranged from 2·6 × 102 to 6·6 × 107 and 10 to 1·0 × 102, respectively. Those from marine fish ranged from 1·0 × 105 to 8·8 × 105 and 2·0 × 103 to 1·6 × 104, respectively. Counts for marine fish gills alone ranged from 1·4 × 105 to 3·4 ×108 and 7·2 × 102 to 1·4 × 107, respectively. No hightemperature (44°) coliforms were recovered from either lake or marine samples.