Assessment of microbiological safety of ground water used in rainbow trout farms

- Isolation of pathogenic bacteria from ground water samples has been done.
- Pseudomonas had high frequency of occurrence in ground water.
- Ground water can be one of the critical points during processing of farmed fish.

Ground water is the main type of water used in aquaculture farming in Armenia. Ground water arrives under pressure from a depth of about 100-180 m.Its temperature and pH values varied between 13 °C and 15 °C and 6.5-7.42 respectively. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of occurrence of total, fecal coliform bacteria and bacteria from the genus Pseudomonas in the ground water samples from two aquaculture farms.There were analyzed 100 samples of ground water in two fish farms. Total coliform bacteria were detected in 86% of analysed water samples. In 60% of analysed samples taken from wells of “SIS” farm number of total coliform bacteria exceeded 300 cfu/100 ml. Thermotolerant coliform bacteria were recovered from 46% of water samples. Among coliform bacteria the highest frequency of recovery shown by the following species: Hafnia alvei, Citrobacter spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella oxytoca. Bacteria from the genus Pseudomonas have been recovered from 100% of analyzed water samples.