A diversity of bacteria and fungi species were observed from edible marine crab Charybdis natator collected from offshore region of Nagapatinam ( Lat 11015 NS and Long 790 46 EW ) on south east coast of Bay of Bengal. Tissues of Carapace, Gills, Muscles, Alimentary cannal, Hepatopancrease and Gonads were culture in Nutrient agar (NA) plate for bacterialogical examination and Potato Dextrose agar (PDA) Plat for fungal identification. Result showed that there were 40 species bacteria and 50 species of fungai isolated and identified from various tissues of crab. There was a significant variation noticed in bacterial and fungal population among the tissues. The predomently isolation and identificatified bacterial flora were
Acinetobacter baumanii, Bacillus subtilus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Micrococcus luteus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, and Vibro cholera and in fungal flora Aspergillus fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger, Curvularia senegalensis, Cladosporium sp. Fusarium moniliforme, Penicilium citrinum, Rhizopus nigricans, Trichoderma viridae, and Verticillium sp. were predominant. The existence of large number of bacteria and fungi observed in Alimentary canal and Carapace is due to the decomposion of food and environmental contamination. Hence the study suggested that the edible crab should be collected from uncontaminated water which is more suitable for human consumption.
