Bacteriological quality evaluation of live food (Artemia, Daphnia, Tenebrio and Tubifex) for fishes in collection, production and selling sites

Cichlids constitute the group of fishes of greatest importance for ornamental aquaculture. To increment the production of these species, producers have to satisfy the metabolic necessities that will give to the fish greater tolerance to the variations in the physicochemical factors of their surroundings, as well as resistance to diseases. Aquaculturists include live food as part of their diet for its high protein content, mainly in their first development phases. The organisms of greatest use in aquaculture as live food are: Artemia, Daphnia, Tubifex and Tenebrio; nevertheless, and in spite of being a probable source of ichthiopathogenic contamination, the bacterial charge they carry is not considered, which is incorporated to the culture system with the food. For this reason, in the present study a diagnosis of the sanitary conditions of live fish food management: Artemia, Daphnia, Tubifex and Tenebrio, during its collection, production and selling process was done. A qualitative and quantitative analysis on the bacterial charge in each one of these foods was performed. The isolated strains, in different specific microbiological agars, were purified and identified using API-20E and API- 20NE systems. To establish the significant difference between sanitary conditions and defined bacterial charge, per food and per commercial process phase, an analysis of variance and the comparison test of multiple means by the method of Tukey was performed. Significant differences in sanitary management conditions and in the count of ufc/mL different food samples were observed. In different phases of commercialization process three different levels were identified: good, bad and worst, according to the sanitary management and count of cfu/mL of each feed.