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Acinetobacter pittii, an emerging new multi-drug resistant fish pathogen isolated from diseased blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala Yih) in China

  • Applied genetics and molecular biotechnology
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Abstract

Despite the reason that genus Acinetobacter works as a grave human pathogen, very few numbers of researches have been done so that term it as a pathogen in respect to fish. As per the current study, isolation of three pathogenic bacterial strains was carried out from infected blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala Yih), from a farm in Yixing city, Jiangsu province, China, which displayed symptoms like tail-rot, shedding scales and ascites in addition to gentle ulceration on the entire body regardless of size and sex of fish. Taking into account the bases of morphology, varied biochemical tests, 16S rDNA segment and rpoB gene sequence analysis, in addition to phylogenetic study, the pathogenic bacteria was identified as A. pittii. Recursive infectivity experiment validated their pathogenicity. Pathological modifications of blunt snout bream infected with A. pittii were taken into observation. Confirmation of the pathogenicity was additionally made by infectivity studies of zebra fish (Brachydanio rerio) and nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans). The drug resistance of these isolates was also scrutinized. All isolates, recognized as multiple drug resistant strains, showcased resistance to clindamycin, streptomycin, vancomycin, cephalosporins, ampicillin, piperacillin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, while showcasing sensitivity to norfloxacin, gentamicin, amikacin, and imipenem. Multi-locus sequence typing of these A. pittii isolates brought to light a new clonal lineage of Acinetobacter leading to fish septicemia outbreaks together with indicating that Acinetobacter stains with the new sequence type 839 may be the dominant clone. This is the first report dealing with the infection caused by A. pittii in fish that suggests that A. pittii has a prospective threat to be encountered by freshwater fish farming in addition to causing human clinical infections.

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Acknowledgments

We thank for Prof. Lu Chengping and Prof. Liu Yongjie at Nanjing Agricultural University for generously providing the A. hydrophila J-1 strain. We thank for Prof. Dr. Sun at State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University for generously providing the C. elegans N2 strain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Fisheries, Key Laboratory of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, No. 1, Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan City, 430070, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Li, Jinglong Cao, Xu Wang, Ning Liu, Weimin Wang & Yi Luo

  2. State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Luo

  3. Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Luo

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  1. Jie Li
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  2. Jinglong Cao
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  3. Xu Wang
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  4. Ning Liu
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  5. Weimin Wang
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  6. Yi Luo
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Correspondence to Yi Luo.

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Funding

This study was funded by grants from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [52902-0900206088] and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province [2014CKB504].

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Animal ethics approval for the present project was obtained from the Animal Ethics Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University.

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Li, J., Cao, J., Wang, X. et al. Acinetobacter pittii, an emerging new multi-drug resistant fish pathogen isolated from diseased blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala Yih) in China. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 6459–6471 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8392-4

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