Assessment of the microbiota related to sardines batches discharged by the occurrence (or presence) of high histamine levels.
Metagenomics, Fish, Canned Food, Biogenic Amines, Scombrotoxicosis.
Annually hundreds of tons of sardines are discarded due to the presence of histamine, a biogenic amine with the potential to cause poisoning in humans, formed with the biological degradation of the musculature of fish. There are countless studies determining the microbial agents that form histamine in fish from bacterial isolation by plating, however, to our knowledge, no work has really demonstrated which bacteria or bacterial groups are most important for the formation of histamine in sardines and other fish in the same family, until the present moment. The present work is a pioneer in the subject and by means of molecular techniques it will determine the bacterial populations of higher prevalence in the musculature of sardines contaminated by histamine. Sample collection took place at the company GDC S/A, located in Itajaí-SC. The target lots of the research came from lots condemned for the presence of histamine and lots free of histamine, from suppliers and from close fishing / processing dates. The samples were submitted to New Generation DNA sequencing (Next Generation Sequencing) in triplicate to evaluate the microbial load. The data to be obtained will be compared with the Neobiome platform, in order to identify the bacterial groups present in the samples. After obtaining the results, the characteristics of the bacterial populations found in the different groups will be analyzed, correlated and discussed. The comparison of the PCR panels of samples with a high histamine content and of histamine-free fish, in addition to the analysis of the characteristics of each family / bacterial genera found, will serve as an incentive for the entire sardine production chain, avoiding massive discard of raw material and risks to human health.