A survey was conducted to investigate the presence of epiphytic organisms in four kelp Saccharina japonica farms in the coastal area of Korea from 2014 to 2015. Of 740 kelp samples that were taken, 208 exhibited six kinds of epiphytic organisms, including hydroid (detection rate: 11.6%), bryozoan (6.4%), polychaete (3.4%), algae (3.2%), caprellid (3%), and oyster (0.5%). The infestation rate for hydroid, bryozoan, and polychaete was significantly higher in the Wando farm, Busan farm, and Pohang farm, respectively. Epiphytic organisms were generally observed during May to September and not January to April, indicating that their infestation was significantly higher when the water had a higher temperature. The histopathogical examination revealed that hydroid and bryozoan organisms were attached on the cuticula of the thallus while some algae were attached on the cuticula of the thallus or had penetrated the epidermis. These results indicate that hydroid and bryozoan were the most predominant epiphytic organisms in Korean kelp farms, even though the infested thallus had not been broken.
In this study, epidemiological cut-off values were estimated for 44 Photobacterium damselae isolates, since clinical breakpoints have not been established for this pathogenic bacterium. The susceptibility of the isolates to 10 antibiotics was evaluated using internationally standardized disc diffusion protocols. Normalized resistance interpretation was used to generate statistically valid epidemiological cut-off values for the susceptibility data. There were not enough strains exhibiting full sensitivity to ampicillin and amoxicillin to allow analysis of these antibiotics. Because there were only a marginally sufficient number of strains exhibiting full sensitivity to oxytetracycline, the cut-off value generated provided only a provisional estimate. The valid wild-type cut-off values were <13, 13, 9, 22, 25, 27, and 28 mm for gentamicin, cephalexin, erythromycin, oxolinic acid, flumequine, florfenicol, and sulfamethoxazole/ trimethoprim, respectively. The application of these cut-off values should greatly facilitate the rational selection of antibiotics for use in commercial fish farms.
Vibrio harveyi is a pathogenic marine bacterium causing systemic symptoms resulting in mass mortalities in fishes and shrimps in aquaculture. Outer membrane proteins(OMPs) are related to the pathogenicity and thus good targets for diagnosis and vaccination for Gram negative bacteria. Recently vaccination strategies using the OMPs have been suggested to control vibriosis in several fish species. In this study, we have isolated V. harveyi from diseased marine fishes from different regions of Korea and investigated genetic variations of four OMP genes including OmpK, OmpU, OmpV and OmpW. Consequently, OmpK and U genes could be divided into 3 subgroups of type I, II, III and type A, B, C, respectively, without any correlation with geographical regions and species while OmpV and W were highly homologous. OmpW gene of V. harveyi FP4138 was fully sequenced and predicted the deduced amino acid sequence to form -barrel with hydrophobic channel. Indeed, the immunogenicity of recombinant OmpW produced in β Escherichia coli was assessed by vaccinating flounder. As a result, the high antibody response with antibody titer of 4.2±0.7 and protection with relative percent survival of 60% against artificial infection of V. harveyi were demonstrated. This result indicates that OmpW is a virulence related factor and it can be a vaccine candidate to prevent a high mortality caused by V. harveyi infection in olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus.
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