Influence of aquatic environment on microbiota of Liopropoma santi fish in a local river in Iraq

The overall objective of the present study was to evaluate the autochthonous microbiota present in the anterior mucosa (AM), posterior mucosa (PM) of the gut and gill (G) of Santi fish. Total count and total coliform bacteria in different sites in the river (Al- Kamalia) were also assessed. Aerobic colony count (ACC) and total coliform bacteria (TCB) were enumerated using tryptone soy agar and MacConeky agar, respectively. Most probable number (MPN) was employed to assess the coliform bacteria numbers in the water.Results showed that the mean log ACC and TCB in the AM were 5.97 CFU g−1 and 5.08 CFU g−1, in the PM were 5.77 CFU g−1 and 4.66 CFU g−1 and in the G were 5.96 CFU g−1 and 4.89 CFU g−1, respectively. In addition, the mean log ACC in water was 6.76 CFU mL−1, while the mean log TCB assessed by MPN was 1.5 cell ml−1.Staphylococcus spp., Aeromonas sobria, Aeromonas hydrophila and Escherichia coli were isolated from both fish and the water samples, Citrobacter freundii was identified in the anterior mucosa and gill. E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Enterobacter spp. and Citrobacter spp. were the common coliform bacteria isolated from the river.