Prevalence and antibiogram of bacteria isolated from Tilapia zilli sold in markets in port-harcourt metropolis

Abstract

Fish is a good source of food to man and its flesh is rich in proteins, minerals and fat. It is however, the fishes are susceptible to a wide variety of bacterial pathogens which are capable of causing diseases. The study was carried out to determine prevalence and antibiogram of the bacterial flora of Tilapia zilli sold in three markets in Port Harcourt. The flesh, gills and intestine were aseptically dissected using and subjected to standard microbiological techniques. A total of seven (7) bacterial species was isolated and identified as Listeria spp Salmonella spp, Bacillus spp, Shigella spp, Klebsiella spp, Vibrio spp and Escherichia coli. The results indicated that Borokiri had the highest total heterotrophic bacterial (THB) count (6.60±0.14 cfu/g) from the flesh, (5.50±0.14 cfu/g) from the gills and (3.15±0.07 cfu/g) from the intestine while the least THB count was found in Iwofe with (1.08±0.7 cfu/g) from the fish flesh (1.77±0.02 cfu/g) gills and (1.90±0.14 cfu/g) intestine. It was also recorded that Iwofe had the no Pseudomonas (TPC) count in the different parts of the fish. Borokiri had the highest prevalence of the bacterial isolate (25%) followed by Eagle Island (15%) and Iwofe (10) bacterial isolates. The susceptibility pattern indicated that Listeria spp, Shigella spp, Salmonella spp were resistant to all antibiotics used (amoxicillin, erythromycin, nitrofurantoin, augmentin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin (100%). Klebsiella species was the only organism that was 100% susceptible to erythromycin.