Microbial flora of Gulf of Mexico and pond shrimp.

Bacteria counts of shrimp delivered by fishing vessels at Galveston, Texas varied greatly. Aerobic plate counts at 28 C ranged from 870-1,300,000 per gram. Either natural seawater or distilled water could be used in media preparation. The use of artificial seawater usually resulted in lower counts. The microbial flora of Gulf shrimp was dominated by coryneforms and species of Pseudomonas, Moraxellam and Micrococcus. Refrigerated storage usually caused an increase in Pseudomonas species. Bacterial counts of pond shrimp from the Galveston area were much lower than those of Gulf shrimp. In some species of pond shrimp Bacillus and Lactobacillus species were predominant.