A Laboratory Based Study on the Accumulation and Excretion of Listeria spp. in King Salmon (Oncorynhus tshawytscha)

King (Chinook) salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were exposed to salmon feed that had been inoculated with a strain of Listeria innocua. Viable Listeria cells could be isolated for the gut for at least 96 hr after the fish were expose to the feed. Listeria was isolated form the watercolumn, but not from the surface of the fish. The implications of these results on the production of cold smoked salmon is discussed.