Microbiological load of land snail sold in Ekpoma market

ABSTRACT The results obtained from this research work shows that land snails sold in Ekpoma market contains some pathogenic microorganisms. A total of fifty samples were bought from 10 different local sellers (five snail samples each) in Ekpoma old market and the new market. The total viable count of bacteria ranged from 2.2 x 108 cfu/g - 8.2 x 108 cfu/g. The lowest was recorded in sample I  having a total bacteria count of 2.2 x 108 cfu/g and the highest count was observed in sample D obtained from the old market (close to a refuge dump) with a corresponding count of 8.2 x 108 cfu/g. The least fungal count was 8.0 x 106 cfu/g of snail sample I obtained from the new market (in a shade) while the highest count was obtained from sample D in the old  market (close to a refuge dump) with a total fungal count of 1.4  x 107 cfu/g. The organisms isolated were Lactobacillus spp, Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp., Aspergillus niger, Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus terrus. Microbiological assessment of snail in this study showed that the snail samples harbour quite a number of highly pathogenic bacteria of potential public health hazard to the dependants as protein source. There is therefore the need to set a thermal standard and time of cooking that would be sufficient for complete inactivation of pathogens while the nutritive contents would remain unaffected.

Contents COVER PAGEii CERTIFICATIONiii DEDICATIONiv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSv TABLE OF CONTENTS……...…………………………………………….…vi ABSTRACTviii
CHAPTER ONE1 1.0INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW1 1.1INTRODUCTION1 1.2LITERATURE REVIEW3 1.3THE GIANT EAST AFRICAN SNAIL (Achatina fulica)5 1.4ECOLOGY7 1.5FEEDS8 1.6NUTRITIONAL COMPONENT OF SNAIL9 1.7AIMS10 1.8OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY10
CHAPTER TWO11 2.0MATERIALS AND METHODS11 2.1AREA OF STUDY11 2.2SAMPLE SIZE AND COLLECTION11 2.3MEDIA USED11 2.4REAGENT USED12 2.5STERILIZATION OF MATERIALS12 2.6MICROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS13 2.6.1WET PREPARATION13 2.6.2TOTAL VIABLE COUNT13 2.6.3IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES14 2.6.4GRAM STAINING14 2.7BIOCHEMICAL TEST15 2.7.1CATALASE TEST15 2.7.2COAGULASE TEST16 2.7.2.1SLIDE TEST16 2.7.2.2TUBE TEST16 2.7.3OXIDASE TEST17 2.7.3INDOLE TEST17 2.7.4SUGAR FERMENTATION TEST18
CHAPTER THREE19 3.0RESULTS19
CHAPTER FOUR26 4.0DISCUSSION26 4.1CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION29 REFERENCES30