THE SOURCES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BAC- 

 TERIA IN DECOMPOSING SALMON 



ALBERTO. HUNTER 



From the Microbiological Laboratory of the Bureau of Chemistry, U . S. Department 



of Agriculture^ 



Received for publication May 9, 1921 



In the course of an extensive investigation of the bacteriology 

 of decomposing salmon a large number of cultures from various 

 sources have been collected for study. The descriptions and, 

 to some extent, the identification of the bacteria obtained from 

 decomposing salmon caught on the spawning migration have 

 been given in a previous report on this subject (Hunter, 1920). 

 In that report the statement was made that the bacteria isolated 

 from decomposing salmon were found to be those which are de- 

 scribed in the literature as water, sewage and soil organisms. It 

 was also stated that there was apparently no contamination of 

 the fish with spore-forming organisms in the cannery. In order 

 to determine definitely the relation between the flora of sea- 

 water and that of decomposing salmon, experiments on the 

 decomposition of "feedy" salmon, which have been described in 

 a previous report (Hunter, 1921) were conducted at Astoria, 

 Oregon. From the plates and the mixed cultures obtained 

 from the decomposing sahnon 197 cultures were selected for 

 study. 



Samples of sea-water were collected from various locations 

 near the mouth of the Columbia River. From these water 

 samples, plated on glucose agar, 14 cultures were selected for 

 study. Although this number of cultures appears rather small, 



' Published by permission of the Secretary of Agriculture. 



The writer wishes to express his appreciation of the advice and helpful sug- 

 gestions which have been given by Dr. Charles Thoni under whose supervision 

 this work has been done. During the work in the field, the writer was ably 

 assisted by Mr. B. A. Linden of the Microbiological Laboratory. 



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