Molecular Typing of Aeromonas hydrophila Isolated from Common Carp in Northeast China

A total of 59 isolates of Aeromonas hydrophila were collected from common carp suffering from freshwater fish hemorrhage disease in 13 fishing grounds in the northeast China, and their phenotypic and genetic characteristics were investigated. All of the isolates were identified as A. hydrophila by traditional biochemical method and yielded a 686-bp DNA fragment of the 16S rDNA gene in the PCR experiments. Collected strains were also evaluated for their susceptibility to 17 different antibiotics. The isolates showed an even trend of the resistance and sensitivity to drugs, highly sensitive to antibiotics, such as Levofloxacin, PolymyxinB, Ofloxacin and resistant to antibiotics, such as Bristopen, Lincomycin, Ampicillin, Teicoplanin. Evaluation of genetic diversity was performed on all isolates by molecular typing with enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC-PCR) method. The results showed that three different types, i.e. type I, II, and type III, were found in 59 isolates and type III accounted for a large proportion of 54.84%. There was no dominant difference between the tendency of the isolates of Heilongjiang Province and Jilin Province in these three types, which showed III> I > II, while the isolates of Liaoning Province showed III> II> I. The percentage of different types in different provinces varied in each other; however, they didn't show any obvious regional or cluster-specific branches. In conclusion, the ability to distinguish Aeromonas hydrophila strains from diseased common carp with ERIC-PCR would be useful for epidemiological investigation and population genetic analysis of this pathogen in China.