Relationship pattern of enteric bacterial load and assessed micronutrients in the gut of Clarias gariepinus fish sampled in the Ibadan municipal zone

Abstract

Abstract Background Farmed fish are faced with factors like microflora and micronutrients that could impact their prime health. There is no clear understanding of some specific bacterial flora amidst micronutrients in the gut of the African sharp-tooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus); hence, this study investigated the encountered bacterial flora, micronutrients and their interactions with the aid of standard microbiological procedures and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Results The bacterial counts in the Ibadan municipal zones were significantly different (P˂0.05) across each sampling week, with prevalence ranging from 0.40 ± 0.1 in Ibadan North to 0.10 ± 0.00 in Ibadan Northwest. The pattern of encountered bacterial flora indicated Ibadan North (Enterobacter species: 3.70 ± 0.07 × 106 CFU/g) as the prevalent. The assessed gut micronutrients were significantly different (P˂0.05) across the farm areas; however, sodium was not significantly different (P˂0.05) in Ibadan Northeast (0.97 ± 0.02) and Ibadan Southwest (0.98 ± 0.01), manganese in Ibadan North (10.50 ± 0.07) and Ibadan Northeast (11.00 ± 0.71), cobalt in Ibadan North (0.00 ± 0.00), Ibadan Northeast (0.00 ± 0.00) and Ibadan Southeast (0.00 ± 0.00). Zinc (92.55 ± 0.01 mg/kg), chromium (13.11 ± 0.22 mg/kg), cadmium (0.82 ± 0.00 mg/kg) and cobalt (6.94 ± 0.22 mg/kg) were predominantly high in Ibadan Northwest, sodium (0.98 ± 0.01 mg/kg) in Ibadan Southwest, lead (4.37 ± 0.01 mg/kg) and copper (34.10 ± 0.07 mg/kg) in Ibadan Southeast. The gut bacterial were positively correlated with manganese, iron, zinc, nickel, potassium and sodium; however, they were negatively correlated with copper, lead, chromium, cadmium and cobalt. Conclusions Therefore, the present study identified some fish farm areas in the Ibadan municipal zones with prevalent gut bacterial load; this is possibly due to the state of the culture environment and also the interactions of the gut bacterial flora with micronutrients, which could be a potential health indicator.