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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1971 May; 21(5): 916-921
Copyright © 1971 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Microbial Flora of Pond-Reared Brown Shrimp (Penaeus aztecus) ¹

Animal Science Department, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas 77843

ABSTRACT

Agar plate counts and microbial types are reported for brown shrimp reared in 2-acre natural marshland and in 0.5-acre artificial ponds during June to October 1970. Bacterial counts of pond-reared shrimp ranged from 5 x 10⁴ to 5.5 x 10⁶ per g. At final harvest in October, bacterial counts ranged from 2 x 10⁵ to 5.5 x 10⁶ per g. In marsh ponds, bacterial counts of shrimp and pond water were lowest in August when both water temperature and salinity were high. Coryneform bacteria and to a lesser extent Vibrio were the predominant isolates from fresh pond shrimp. Shrimp stored at 3 to 5 C for 7 days were acceptable as judged by appearance and odor. Between 7 and 14 days of refrigerated storage, bacterial counts increased sharply and about 50% of the samples became unacceptable. Refrigerated storage of pond shrimp caused increases in coryneform bacteria and micrococci and decreases in Vibrio, Flavobacterium, Moraxella, and Bacillus species. Pseudomonas species were not significant in fresh or stored pond shrimp. The microbial flora of pond water usually was dominated by coryneform bacteria, Flavobacterium, Moraxella, and Bacillus species.

¹ Technical paper no. 8940 of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.