Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescent assay to enumerate bacterial numbers on fresh fish

The microbial quality of fresh fish was determined by using a bacterial ATP bioluminescent assay. Assay procedures included differential filtration followed by enzymatic degradation of somatic ATP. This technique limited interference from non-bacterial ATP sources and thus bacterial ATP was quantitated by using the luciferin-luciferase reaction in an automated luminometer. Good correlation (r = .96) was obtained from four species of finfish when microbial counts, determined from ATP analyses, were compared to counts determined by using conventional plate count procedures.