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ABSTRACT
A fish pond with recommended water quality will produce healthy fishes whereas fish ponds with poor water quality will cause fish mortality and outbreak of diseases in fish which inturn can affect the consumers of fish. One of the major and most common causes of poor water quality is colonization by pathogenic bacteria. In this study, a total of 20 fish and water samples from 10 fish farms were aseptically collected to observe the bacteria load of the fish and of the pond water. Bacteria were isolated from the liver and pond water and were identified by their morphological characteristics and conventional biochemical tests. The total heterotrophic count ranges from 19.5 ± 1.38 × 106 to 41.2 ± 1.41 × 106 for pond water and 7.3 ± 1.45 × 105 to 16.5 ± 1.71 × 105 for the fish samples and this suggests that the bacteria flora of a fish is symbolic to the pond water from which it was gotten. Pseudomonas species, Staphylococcus species, Klebsiella species, Enterococcus species, Proteus species, Escherichia coli, Vibrio species, Enterobacter species and Aeromonas species. were the different isolates gotten from both the water and fish samples collected from the different fish farms. Out of the 8 bacteria specie isolated, 6 belong to the gram negative organisms while 2 belong to the gram positive organisms.In this study, the bacterial flora was composed of potential spoilage and pathogenic organisms that could constitute a public health risk and economic loss. Hence proper handling management should be adhered to by farmers to reduce the risk of transfer of bacterial infection from pond water to workers during harvesting and from fishes to humans via consumption.
