Pathogenic Vibrios in Penaeus monodon Shrimp Hatcheries and Aquaculture Farms

Abstract

Presumptive Vibrio species isolated from hatchery water (105), post-larvae (105), farm water (75), farm sediment (75) and shrimp (100) from Penaeus monodon aquaculture systems were screened for the presence of pathogenic Vibrio species. V. alginolyticus was the most dominant pathogenic Vibrio species in both hatchery and aquaculture farm environments. V. parahaemolyticus, V. vulnificus and V. harveyi were detected only in hatcheries and V. cholerae was detected only in aquaculture farms. A PCR method was developed to detect common pathogenic vibrios in P. monodon aquaculture system utilizing V. cholerae species-specific sodB primers, V. cholerae ctxAB genes specific primers, V. alginolyticus specific gyrB prim- ers, V. vulnificus specific hsp60 primers and V. parahaemolyticus specific flaE primers, which can help in rapidly identifying these human pathogenic vibrios from an unknown colony on TCBS agar.