Microbial assessment of commercially important crabs from Visakhapatnam fishing harbour, east coast of India

The present study was conducted for microbial assessment of five selected species viz., Scylla serrata (Forsskal, 1755), Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) Portunus sanguinolentus (Herbst, 1783), Scylla oceanica (Forsskal, 1755), Charybdis feriatus (Linnaeus, 1758) from Visakhapatnam fishing harbour, east coast of India. For this, TPC (Total Plate Count) and TEC (Total Enterobacteriaceae Count) occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Vibrio sp. were determined. In this study, highest TPC was observed in Scylla oceanica (3.9 × 104) followed by Portunus pelagicus (2.75 ×103) and Charybdis feriatus (2.11 × 104) whereas more TEC was observed in Charybdis feriatus (3.6 × 106) followed by Portunus sanguinolentus (3.32 × 105) and Scylla oceanica (3.1 × 106). In overall study, more colonies was occurred in S. aureus followed by E. coli and Vibrio sp. while overall microbial accumulation was observed high in Charybdis feriatus followed by Scylla oceanica and Portunus pelagicus respectively. In conclusion, five species of crab under study were more or less contaminated but comparatively microbial load in local market samples indicated that the hygienic condition of these markets were low