Recovery of Acinetobacter baumannii from diseased channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) in China

Whereas it is well documented that Acinetobacter baumannii is associated with human clinical infections, there are very few studies to date that report it as a pathogen for fish. In the present study, one bacterial strain was isolated from diseased channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) from Bingzi farm, Hefei, Anhui province, China and named as BH028, which was later identified as A. baumannii by both biochemical tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods and further confirmed as the causative agent by infectivity study. This is the first report on A. baumannii as a virulent pathogen for channel catfish. Exophthalmia, pale liver, and empty stomach were the main clinical signs in the affected fish. The liver might be the major target organ. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests showed that A. baumannii was multiresistant to 10 antimicrobial agents tested.