Bacteriological and elemental quality of Clarias gariepinus (cat fish) samples from River Lavun, Bida Niger state, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: River Lavun, located near Bida is a source of domestic water for the populace. Fish from this river is consumed by general populace. Polluted river water contaminates its fish, it is therefore, necessary to evaluate bacteriological and elemental quality of fish from this river which have been reported earlier to be polluted.
Objective: To evaluate the bacteriological and elemental quality of fish from River Lavun, with a view of assessing its potential health hazard.
Methodology: Three live cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) were obtained from River Lavun monthly for six months for analyses. Using standard methods, microbial load was determined, while susceptibility profiles of the identified isolates was obtained using disc diffusion technique. Elemental contents of the fish were determined using  atomic absorption spectrophotometer.
Results: Heterotrophic plate counts ranged from 1.5±0.3 to 5.4±0.6×105 (cfu/g) while faecal coliform counts ranged between 3.8±1.2 and 6.8±2.4×102 (cfu/g). The Enterobacteriaceae constituted 69.8% of the isolates comprising, mostly Klebsiella spp. (20.8%), Enterobacter spp. (17.0%), Escherichia coli (13.2%), Salmonella  spp. (9.4%) and Serratia spp. (5.7%). Staphylococcus spp. constituted as much as 30.2%. A high proportion of these organisms were resistant to erythromycin,  tetracycline, ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate and cefuroxime. However,  Staphylococcus spp. were generally susceptible to the test antibiotics. A high  number of isolates (67.9%) were multi-drug resistance. Three elements: Iron, Zinc and Nickel were above permissible limit in fish prescribed by FAO/WHO.
Conclusion: Fish from this river is polluted with some pathogenic bacteria and  contains some elements that could be hazardous on consumption.

Keywords: Bacteriological, contamination, resistance, elemental.