A comparison between ice and salt storages on bacteriological quality of Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer)

This study compares the bacteriological quality between ice and salt storage methods on Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer). The main objectives of the study were to (i) identify different bacteria in Asian seabass when preserve with ice and sea salt, and (ii) compare the quantitative bacterial load in ice and salt preserved Asian sea bass. For this study, Asian seabass was stored in two different conditions: ice-chilling and sea salting. Each storage condition was maintained in triplicate for a duration of 2 days. All fish samples were analyzed by performing bacteriological analysis and the isolated bacteria were identified by using API® identification system. In case of the quantity of bacteria in the flesh, chilling and salting had no significant difference. In case of quantity of bacteria on the skin, salt-preserved fish had higher quantity of bacteria than ice-preserved fish. Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas flurescens had been identified up to genus level from skin sample of ice-chilled fish. Pseudomonas flurescens was the fish spoilage bacteria while Acinetobacter baumannii was human pathogenic bacteria. Besides Pseudomonas flurescens and Acinetobacter baumannii many isolates were identified up to genus level, those include Pseudomonas, Vibrio and Myxobacteria. All bacteria were cocci shaped except a few bacilli. In term of bacteria number and morphological characteristics, Ice-chilled preserved fish was better than salt preserved fish. Overall, less number of bacteria was observed in both Ice-chilled and sea salt preserved fish. The result of this study indicated that the quick preservation is a very important factor to control bacterial load in the preserved fish