Effect of Inactivation kinetics of Bacteria on Water Quality in the Aquaponic System

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine the food safety status and the effectiveness of ultraviolet treatment as a food safety intervention in reducing the microbial loads of the water system in a model aquaponic unit by using ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer. The ‎experimental system was designed, manufactured and implemented at the laboratory of the Department of agricultural Engineering, ‎Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, ‎Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt. Water samples were collected during the production period of Nile Tilapia from ponds and microbial analysis was conducted for the total bacteria count and total coliform and the prevalence of total bacteria counts, coliforms in the systems in triplicates. A significant increase was observed in microbial counts over the trial period, in the absence of ultraviolet (UV) treatment. UV sterilization did significantly reduce the total bacteria counts and coliform counts when compared to the absence of ultraviolet (UV) samples. The regression analysis showed relationships between Q (ID) and its impact on log total bacteria and log total coliform and Log I when height of lamp equals to 10, 20 and 30 cm. The estimation coefficient (R2) was the highest at the height of lamp 20 cm between Q (ID) and Log I (D) for total coliform was equal to 0.9696, whereas the p-values were lower than the level of significance (0.05) for all parameters. The statistical analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant for all parameters