Microbiological analysis of oysters and waters collected from natural banks and from ostreicultures: tools for propose new bacteriological indicator for assessing quality of seafoods and cultivation water

• Grant number: 09/05960-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2009
• End date: October 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Julia Fernandes
• Grantee: Ana Julia Fernandes
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The proposed project addresses the consumption of marine organisms (oysters) as food and its relation to public health since the Brazilian legislation about microbiological quality of seafood (RDC Anvisa 12/01) and water for the cultivation of aquatic organisms (CONAMA 357/05), are outdated with respect to indicators of fecal contamination used for marine environments. It is known that the Enterococci group is better bacterial indicators of fecal contamination in these environments and is adopted as a criterion for evaluating the quality of marine recreational waters (CONAMA 274/00). This is done because Enterococci exhibit higher resistance to stress factors such as salt and ultraviolet light and thus survive longer in salt and brackish environments compared to other bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and thermotolerant coliforms. In despite of this, the first two laws cited do not consider this bacterial group as a microbiological indicator of seafood quality nor for the cultivation waters. This study aims to demonstrate by analyzing the densities of different bacterial indicators of fecal contamination in oysters from natural banks and from ostreicultures, the need to include the group of bacteria Enterococci as a criterion for evaluating the quality of sea foods and to assess waters for the cultivation of them in the relevant laws, CONAMA 357/05 and RDC Anvisa 12/01. (AU)