title: Evaluation of the petrifilm aerobic count plate for enumeration of aerobic marine bacteria from seawater and Caulerpa lentillifera.
abstract: The enumeration and evaluation of the activity of marine bacteria are important in the food industry. However, detection of marine bacteria in seawater or seafood has not been easy. The Petrifilm aerobic count plate (ACP) is a ready-to-use alternative to the traditional enumeration media used for bacteria associated with food. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a simple detection and enumeration method utilizing the Petrifilm ACP for enumeration of aerobic marine bacteria from seawater and an edible seaweed, Caulerpa lentillifera. The efficiency of enumeration of total aerobic marine bacteria on Petrifilm ACP was compared with that using the spread plate method on marine agar with 80 seawater and 64 C. lentillifera samples. With sterile seawater as the diluent, a close correlation was observed between the method utilizing Petrifilm ACP and that utilizing the conventional marine agar (r=0.98 for seawater and 0.91 for C. lentillifera). The Petrifilm ACP method was simpler and less time-consuming than the conventional method. These results indicate that Petrifilm ACP is a suitable alternative to conventional marine agar for enumeration of marine microorganisms in seawater and C. lentillifera samples.
authors.affiliation: Okinawa Prefectural Institute Health and Environment, 2085 Ozato, Nanjo-shi Okinawa 901-1202, Japan. kudakajn@pref.okinawa.lg.jp
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kudaka
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horii
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamanaha
authors.forename: Kiyomasa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Itokazu
authors.forename: Masaji
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Katsuya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taira
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nidaira
authors.forename: Sho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okano
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kitahara
mesh_terms: D001420:Bacteria, Aerobic / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D046068:Caulerpa / Q000382:microbiology*; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*