Microbial Contamination and Proximate Carcass of Cod (Gadus morhua) Obtained from Local Markets of Imo State

The microbial and proximate quality of Cod Gadus morhua obtained from cold room and open markets of three Local Government Areas of Imo state, Nigeria was carried using standard mehods. Microbial analysis revealed that the total viable count for the fish species sampled from cold room ranged from 5.3 x 104 – 9.5 x 104 cfu/g while that of the open market samples ranged from 8.0 x 104cfu/g to 2.8 x 105cfu/g. Total Fungal Count (TFC) had increasing microbial values in the open markets than in the cold rooms and ranged from 1.0 x 103cfu/g to 7.2 x 103cfu/g for cold room samples whereas a range of 1.0 x 105cfu/g to 3.4 x 105cfu/g was obtained for open markets. Generally, ten bacterial species and nine fungal species were isolated and identified during characterization from the cold room and open market samples, bacteria being Micrococcus spp., Stphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Proteus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp. while fungi include Geotrichum spp., Candida spp., Rhizopus stolonifera, Mucor spp., Rhodotorula spp., and four species of Aspergillus. Result for proximate composition shows that crude protein cold room value was 17.24 ±0.52 but significantly increased in the open market samples (19.44±0.94) just as there was significant difference in crude fiber values of cold room (6.98±0.54) and open markets (ranged between 3.04±0.81 and 4.39±1.30). On the other hand, an insignificant increase in values of moisture content, NFE, ash content and ether extract but with values reducing from cold room (1.30±0.62 and 1.06±0.50) to open market (0.12±0.70 and 1.00±1.00) as their minimum value for the later. It is suggested that fish be appropriately handled in ice boxes during transport and storage before sale especially in the absence of refrigerators so as to reduce microbial contamination and maintain its original proximate value.