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Mixed mycobacterial infections in farmed sturgeons
Author(s) -
Zhang De Feng,
Ji Cheng,
Zhang Xu Jie,
Li Tong Tong,
Li Ai Hua,
Gong Xiao Ning
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/are.12346
Subject(s) - mycobacterium marinum , biology , sturgeon , mycobacterium chelonae , microbiology and biotechnology , mycobacterium , mycobacterium fortuitum , virulence , bacteria , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , gene , genetics
Based on microbiological and histopathological examinations and DNA sequencing, several outbreaks of mycobacteriosis in the reared sturgeons, including Chinese sturgeon ( A cipenser sinensis Gray) and Amur sturgeon ( A cipenser schrencki ), were identified during 2009 to 2010. Forty‐nine isolates of non‐tuberculous mycobacteria( NTM )were isolated from 19 diseased sturgeons. In total, seven species of Mycobacterium were identified, namely, Mycobacterium chelonae , Mycobacterium marinum , Mycobacterium gordonae , Mycobacterium fortuitum , Mycobacterium szulgai , Mycobacterium arupense and Mycobacterium porcinum . Among them, M. marinum was found to be more prevalent (89.5%) compared with the other mycobacterial species. When two molecular biological methods, PCR ‐ DGGE (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) analysis and rpoB gene library sequencing, were used to analyse the mycobacterial DNA s extracted from the diseased fish tissues, mixed infections of two or three mycobacterial species were found being the predominant infection form (94.7%) in sturgeon mycobacteriosis. M. marinum was the only one species that caused sturgeon mycobacteriosis alone. Virulence assay showed that M. marinum possessed stronger pathogenicity to zebrafish killing 100% of fish in 28 days at 10 3 cfu/fish than the other species. These results suggested that M. marinum is the major pathogenic bacteria in sturgeon mycobacteriosis. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report on mycobacteriosis in farmed Chinese and Amur sturgeons as well as the first isolation of M. porcinum and M. arupense from fish.