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250breakdown proteins into peptones, polypeptidesand amino acids resulting in fish deterioration(FAO, 1968).The result of fish tissue degradation led toloss in weight of smoked C. gariepinus (Table 2).C. gariepinus infested with adult D. maculatussuffered the greatest loss in tissue weight contraryto Osuji (1975) and Nduh (1984) views that thelarvae of D. maculatus are the most destructive ofdried stored fish products. The well-developedbiting mouth-parts of adult D. maculatus incomparism with those of the larvae must havecontributed to the rapid loss in tissue weight offish samples infested with the adults in this study.The reason was that the well-developed mouthpartsof the adults conferred on them a moredestructive tendency than the larvae.The treatment of smoked fish samples tovarying levels of larval infestation did not affectthe free fatty acids (FFA) (Table 3) and percenttotal lipids (% TL) (Table 4) of the tissue. FFA and% TL of fish infested by both larval and adultpests increased with prolonged period of storage.These results compared favourably with theobservations made by Olley and Watson (1962)and Nduh (1984) that attributed these increases tothe hydrolysis of Phospholipids by lipases and alsoagreed with Chen et al. (1974) report that duringstorage, fats become rancid owing to peroxideformations at the double bond by atmosphericoxygen. The authors further stated that ranciditymay also be as a result of hydrolytic breakdown bymicro-organisms leading to the liberation of freefatty acids.The pH of the infested fish samples andthe control decreased with periods of storage(Table 5). This was probably due to variations inthe storage medium, which enhanced fastactivities and the release of metabolic by-products(CO 2 , urea and uric acid) from the pests. Thisdecrease in pH could have prevented theproliferation of pathogenic micro-organisms suchas Clostridium botulinum and Bacilliusstearothermophilus. The result was the abundanceof pest food for healthy growth of the pests, aswell as the gycolytic breakdown of fish tissue togive lactic acid. This assertion is in accordancewith the views of Frazier (1976), who reported adecrease in pH post-mortem fish tissues owing toglycolysis. This study, however, varied with that ofEmokpae (1978) who reported an increase in pHof smoked C. gariepinus: something he attributedto the breakdown of protein to amino acids andconsequently to ammonia.Conclusion: The results of this study showed thatthe crude protein contents of infested fishdecreased with increase in storage time. This maybe attributed to the activities of certain microorganismswhich facilitated enzymatic breakdownof proteins to amino acids. Storage time may bedue to the oxidation of fats to fatty acids resultingin rancidity. In addition, the decrease in pH valuesof infested fish was attributed to the metabolic byproducts(CO 2 , urea and uric acid) by microorganismsin the fish tissue. Tissue degradation ofsmoked fish samples was related to the infestationlevels and exposure time. Thus, the longer theperiods of storage of infested smoked fish themore the tissues are degraded.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe authors wish to acknowledge the contributionsof the following persons towards the successfulexecution of the research: Dr. C. E. Eze, Head ofDepartment, Applied Biology, Enugu StateUniversity of Science and Technology, Enugu; whoprovided necessary laboratory facilities for thestudy; Professor Okonkwo, Dean of the Faculty ofNatural Sciences of the same institution, whooffered useful advice. We are extremely grateful tothem.REFERENCESAFOLABI, A. O., OMOSOLA, A. A. and OKE, O. L.(1984). Quality changes of Nigeriantraditionally processed freshwater fishspecies. 1. Nutritive and organolepticchanges. Journal of Food Technology, 19:333 – 340.AOAC (1995). Official Methods of Analysis of theAOAC, 16 th Edition, Association of OfficialAnalytical Chemists, Washington DC, USA.928 pBARD, J., DE KIMPE, P., LAZARD, J., LEMASSON,J. and LESSENT, P. (1976). Handbook o ftropical fish culture. Centre TechniqueFrostier Tropical, 45 bis, avenue, de caBelle Gabrielle 94130, Nogent–Sur marine,France. 90 pp.BLIGH, E. G. and DYER, W. J. (1959). A rapidmethod of total lipid extraction andpurification. Canadian Journal ofBiochemistry and Physiology, 37: 911 –917.CHEN, F. C., WAREN, W. and LEVIN, R. E. (1974).Identification of major high boiling volatilecompounds produced during refrigeratedstorage of gaddock fillets. Appliedmicrobiology, 28: 680 – 769.EMOKPAE, A. O. (1978). Organoleptic assessmentof the quality of fresh fish. Pages 12 – 15.In: 1978 Annual Report of NigeriaInstitute of Oceanography and MarineResearch (NIOMR), Lagos, Nigeria.FAO (1968). Ice in fisheries. Food and AgriculturalOrganization. FAO Fisheries Report Series ,59: 1 – 68.