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Routine Methods of Shellfish Examination with References to Sewage Pollution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

James Johnstone
James Johnstone
Affiliation:
(Fisheries Laboratory, University of Liverpool.)
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(1) At present no public authority possesses legal power to deal with the question of the contamination of shellfish.

(2) It is not sufficient to test shellfish exposed for sale in a market or shop. These may have been contaminated subsequent to removal from the fishery; and multiplication of the contained bacteria may have taken place. The results of such analyses may lead to unjustifiable condemnation of a laying. It is essential that a topographical examination should be made and that samples for analysis should be taken from the laying itself.

(3) In the case of natural shellfish beds there is so much variability in the conditions with regard to the susceptiblity to pollution that a fairly large number of the animals must be examined. The labour of the analyses is therefore so great that the development of some simple routine test for faecal contamination is most desirable. Since most desirable. Since most natural shellfish layings are situated within the “sewage zone”, and therefore contain B. coli, quantitative results are essential.

(4) There are considerable differences in practial routine work in regard to the methods of isolation of intestinal organisms from shellfish; and aslo with respect to the number and nature of the reactions necessary for the identification of B. coli. It is desirable that some generally recognised series of tests should be uniformly adopted by bacteriologists engaged in such work. Further, different micro-organisms, possibly of varying degrees of significance as indicators of faecal contamination, may have been confused. There is possibly some variation in cultural characters in B. coli, and investigation of this variability is desirable. Investigation of the changes in cultural reactions undergone by intestinal organisms when entering the sea, or the tissues of marine shellfish, is also very desirable.

(5) Remedial measures other than the simple closure of a contaminated laying might be suggested. It is possible to subject the shellfish to treatment which will cause them to clean themselves of contained sewage bacteria. The source of the pollution may be removed; and sterilisation of the shellfish may be practised.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1909 , pp. 412 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1909

References

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