Studies on the isolation of Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida from diseased golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus Linnaeus) and antibacterial agents sensitivity

An epizootic occurred among cultured golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus); it involved mass mortality on fish farms in Linshui in Hainan province, China, in 2008. Diseased fish exhibited no obvious clinical signs, but pathological studies showed that nodules were scattered over the spleen and kidney. To investigate the nature of the pathogen, we studied the surviving fish, and a Gram-negative bacterium (designated strain TOS1) was isolated from the spleens of golden pompano. Pathogenicity assays revealed that TOS1 was virulent for golden pompano when they were challenged by intraperitoneal injection, and the lethal dose (LD50) was 1.1 × 106 colony forming units (CFU) g−1. 16S rDNA gene sequence of TOS1 demonstrated high similarity (99%) to that of Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida. Phylogenetic analysis also showed a clear association of strain TOS1 with P. damselae subsp. piscicida, and this agreed with the results of morphological, physiological and biochemical identification. The results also showed that TOS1 was sensitive to norfloxacin, gentamicin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, neomycin, streptomycin and tetracycline, and was very sensitive to Psidium guajava and Atractylodes lancea (minimum bactericidal concentration, MBC = 10−6 g/mL). This paper describes a systematic study of P. damselae subsp. piscicida isolated from diseased golden pompano in China, including its sensitivity to different antibiotics and Chinese herbal extracts, which will contribute to the diagnosis and prevention of the associated disease.