Research Article
Ibrahim Mohamed Aman, Yehia El
Abstract
A total of 160 random samples of Tilapia nilotica (TN) and Mugil cephalus (MC) fish collected from eight fish farms and natural water channels in Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt during twelve months. All fish samples were evaluated microbiologically for aerobic plate count, psychrotrophic count, staphylococci count and mould count and for moisture, protein, fat and ash content. The microbiological examination of natural and farm TN and MC fish revealed that 12.5% and 27.5% of natural TN and MC fish respectively exceeded the Egyptian Standard (2005) for APC while 17.5% and 35% of Farm TN and MC respectively exceeded the Egyptian Standard (2005) for APC. The natural channels TN and MC fish samples showed average Psychrophilic counts of 1.55 × 104 and 1.71 × 104 CFU respectively while farm TN and MC fish showed higher average counts of 2.69 × 104 and 2.85 × 104 CFU respectively. 60% and 75% of natural channels TN and MC respectively contained staphylococci, of them 70.8% of TN and 66.7% of MC had coagulase positive staphylococcus aureus. 72.5% and 80% of farm TN and MC fish had staphylococci, of them 79.3% and 81.3% respectively contained coagulase positive staphylococcus aureus. Farm fish samples showed higher incidence and count for mold than natural fish samples. All examined fish samples showed moister percent in the range between 71.2 and 74.1 and the protein value ranged from 17.9 and 20.05%. The Tilapia nilotica fish showed lower fat content than Mugil cephalus fish samples.