Biochemical and Serological Characterization of Flavobacterium columnare from Freshwater Fishes of Eastern India

Abstract

Flavobacterium columnare is an important pathogen of freshwater fishes often causing high mortality. Seven strains of F. columnare have been isolated from gill necrosis, skin lesions and internal organs of Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Carassius auratus, Anabas testudineus and Clarias batrachus and characterized by biochemical reactions and serological tests viz indirect enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Dot‐ELISA, agglutination test. All the strains showed binding to Congo red dye as well as hemolysis. All the seven strains were susceptible to amikacin, gentamycin and ofloxacin. In vivo LD50 dose of virulent strain MS2 was found to be 6 × 104 CFU/mL after experimental infection to L. rohita. Serologically all the seven strains showed a positive result to agglutination, Dot‐ELISA and indirect ELISA. The agglutination titer was found to be in the range of 256‐131,072. The lysozyme activity of hyperimmune sera was found to be 39.37 ± 0.80 units/mL. This is the first extensive study that report about the various strains of F. columnare from freshwater fishes of Eastern India and their differentiation by biochemical and serological methods.

Phenotypic characterization and genetic diversity of Flavobacterium columnare isolated from red tilapia, Oreochromis sp., in Thailand

“…Columnaris has been documented as myxobacterial disease, peduncle disease, saddleback, fin rot, cotton wool disease, or black patch necrosis (Noga 2010). It has a worldwide distribution, causes remarkable economic losses, and severely affects cold and warm freshwater fish such as channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque), Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L.), common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., Indian carp, Catla catla (Hamilton), climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch), striped catfish, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage), and rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) (Amin et al 1988;Figueiredo et al 2005;Kubilay et al 2008;Shoemaker et al 2008;Dash et al 2009;Eissa, Zaki & Aziz 2010;Rahman et al 2010;LaFrentz et al 2012;Tien et al 2012;Kumar Verma & Rathore 2013). Phenotypically homologous characteristics among F. columnare isolates were described in some previous studies that lead to a limitation in phenotypic classification (Bernardet 1989;Triyanto & Wakabayashi 1999;Figueiredo et al 2005).…”

Mortality and pathology of hybrid catfish, Clarias macrocephalus (Günther) × Clarias gariepinus (Burchell), associated with Edwardsiella ictaluri infection in southern Thailand

“…The success of clarias catfish aquaculture, however, may be impeded by the prevalence of infectious diseases, especially bacterial diseases that can cause large losses. The major pathogenic bacteria responsible for mortalities in clarias catfish include Aeromonas hydrophila (Boonyaratpalin 1987;Llobrera & Gacutan 1987;Angka, Lam & Sin 1995;Aoki 1999), Flavobacterium columnare (Dash et al 2009;Prasad 2009), Edwardsiella tarda (El-Yazeed & Ibrahem 2009;Ibrahem, Atta & Shalaby 2010) and Edwardsiella ictaluri (Boonyaratpalin & Kasornchan 1986;Kasornchandra, Rogers & Plumb 1987).…”

“…The major pathogenic bacteria responsible for mortalities in clarias catfish include Aeromonas hydrophila (Boonyaratpalin ; Llobrera & Gacutan ; Angka, Lam & Sin ; Aoki ), Flavobacterium columnare (Dash et al . ; Prasad ), Edwardsiella tarda (El‐Yazeed & Ibrahem ; Ibrahem, Atta & Shalaby ) and Edwardsiella ictaluri (Boonyaratpalin & Kasornchan ; Kasornchandra, Rogers & Plumb ).…”

DNA fingerprinting of Flavobacterium columnare using RAPD-PCR

“…There were eight strains from 78 isolates and grouped after biochemical characterization [16]. The strains were coded as MS1, MS2, MS3, MS5, MS6, MS7, MS8 and MS9 respectively.…”