ABSTRACT
Fresh applewater snail (Lanistes libycus) samples were subjected to three different preservation treatments (oven-dried, smoke-dried and sun-dried) and stored under ambient temperature for weekly assessment of the microbiological qualities.
One hundred and sixty pieces of the snails were obtained from fishermen around Ikpoba river, shucked, washed thoroughly, weighed and divided into four groups. Forty pieces each were dried using Magbon-Alade smoking kiln, electric oven, dried under the sun and kept as fresh samples. The microbial qualities of the differently cured samples were evaluated using standard analytical techniques to access the bacterial and fungi counts and isolates.
The total variable counts (TVCs) of the snail under different drying methods increased across the week, this was as a result of some factors that can be controlled (temperature of the drying apparatus) or cannot be controlled (sun radiation, wind, insect infestation, humidity). No significant difference (p˂0.001) existed between oven-dried samples (7.0 × 103, 1.1×104) and smoke-dried sample (1.0×104, 1.2×104) at the first and second week, the sun-dried samples (1.4×105) were significantly different from the oven dried (6.5×104) and smoke dried samples (6.3×104) across the third week. The bacterial isolates found were Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas sp, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella sp, Streptococcus pyogenes and Proteus sp. The fungi isolates were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Fusarium and Mucor.
This study therefore recommends smoking of Apple water snail (Lanistes libycus) because it has positive influence on the shelf life as a result of a reduction in the bacteria and fungi counts when stored at ambient temperature.
