Species composition of microorganisms and their quantitative indicators in microbiological tests of fish and fish products

Integration processes in Ukraine are related to the adaptation of normative documentation of standards to the EU. The priority directions in international normative documents are guaranteeing the production of safe and high-quality food raw materials in various branches of agriculture, in particular fisheries. In the EU countries, there is a very high prevalence of enteropathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, pathogens of the genera Salmonella, Enterococcus, Campilobacter, etc. in raw materials and food products, in particular in the fish industry. Given that in Ukraine, due to certain methodological limitations in monitoring and routine studies, all types of bacteria that contaminate fish and fish products are not always identified, the purpose of our in-depth microbiological studies was to determine the actual species composition of bacterial microorganisms in fish and fish products samples and to perform a quantitative comparative analysis of the results of in-depth microbiological studies with the results of monitoring and routine tests to assess the real risks of foodborne illness. In-depth microbiological tests identified opportunistic and pathogenic microorganisms in 125 (37.1% of the samples tested) samples of fish and fish products. According to the results of the State Monitoring, only 1 (0.3% of the samples tested) strain of Listeria monocytogenes was isolated. During routine testing, 22 (6.5% of the samples tested) such strains were isolated. During in-depth microbiological tests, 45 isolates of Escherichia coli, 51 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, 19 isolates of Listeria monocytogenes, 5 isolates of Bacillus spp., 4 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis, 1 isolate of Proteus vulgaris, which confirms a high level of contamination of fish and fish products with pathogenic microorganisms, including zoonotic ones, which exceeds the results of routine studies by 5,7 times and State monitoring studies by 123,7 times. The obtained results of in-depth microbiological studies indicate the need to adjust the current documentation on in-depth testing of fish and fish products, as there are real risks of the possible spread of antibiotic-resistant strains, including acquired resistance, in Ukraine. Key words: contamination, fish, fish products, microbiological studies, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Enterococcus faecalis, Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus spp.