Análisis microbiológico de bacterias marinas totales en el mejillón (mytilus edulis) del estero hondo ubicado en el sector la pitahaya.

Abstract

Nowadays, the marine resources in the coastline section of Ecuador are a source of employment and economic income for a large part of the country's population, thanks to the fact that our region has a wide natural wealth and a full range of ecosystems that turn out to be the habitat of different marine species for consumption. Most of the marine resources such as shells, crabs, mussels, that are traded in the main ports in our province have great local, national and international demand, however, there are also artisanal fishermen who extract these resources just for local consumption and sale. Seafood in general represents the diet of many people globally, since these products that contain proteins and nutrients necessary for the body, in addition over the years and technological advances in the food industry, those resources are also used as a raw material for the manufacture of other commodity product. Bivalve molluscs such as shells, mussels and clams are preferred by most people, since they have always been characterized as a common commodity product, in addition to having an excellent flavor in different dishes of traditional cuisine. Despite this, the pollution in the coastline section in our province is also noticeable, there are many causes but the mostly are due to human beings with mining, agriculture, aquaculture and even artisanal fishing activities that are carried out in the main landing ports, all this represents a negative impact on the marine ecosystem since all the waste is discarded into the sea. One of the main reasons for pollution is measureless of the impact and also not everyone knows the consequences on the health consumer, so the causes turn out to be normal for some and even for people who use marine resources as a source of work. However, it is worth mentioning that for some years authorities have been implementing work plans in some communities in the coastline section of the country, material has allowed the beneficiaries to have control and care of all marine resources, but particularly take care of the mangrove and make use of the resources provided by nature in a sustainable way without damaging or altering the ecosystem. In the Pitahaya sector the pollution is noticeable, for this reason we have believed it necessary to carry out a characterization of the contamination of the “estero hondo” of the Pitahaya port through microbiological tests carried out on the Mytilus edulis mussel used as a bioindicator and thus determine the level of bacterial pollution in this site, and compare it with the consumer food safety standards established in our country. The global results showed us that there is contamination since a load of 〖1.8 x10〗^5cfu/gr was found in the mussel, which are Enteric bacteria and cause damage to people's health. This result allows us to conclude that mussels found in “estero hondo”in the Pitahaya Port are polluted since a large number of bacteria that are pathogenic to humans were found due to the fact that there is no treatment for waste water.