Bacterial flora in the digestive tract of Helix aspersa Müller snails under two breeding systems

The objective of this study was to compare the bacterial flora present in the intestine and hepatopancreas of land snails (Helix aspersa Müller) under intensive and extensive breeding systems. Thirty healthy adult snails per production system were collected from six farms located in the province of Lima. Samples from intestinal mucosa and the hepatopancreas were examined from each animal using protocols of microbiological isolation established for aerobic and facultative aerobic bacteria. Bacteria of 15 genuses were isolated: Escherichia, Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Serratia, Hafnia, Proteus, Providencia, Aeromonas, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Micrococcus, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter; and non-fermentative gram-negative bacillus (BNF). It was obtained 193 strains from samples of the extensive production system, where bacteria of the Escherichi genus were predominant (17.1%, 33/193); and 183 strains were isolated from samples in the intensive production system where the Klebsiella genus was the most frequent (17.5%, 32/183). Also, the Klebsiella was the most frequent isolated genus in both the intestine and the hepatopancreas (13.6%, 25/184, and 17.2%, 33/192 respectively). The Providencia and Micrococcus genuses were only isolated from the hepatopancreas. Statistical differences on the frequency of bacteria isolated between production systems were found.