• Journal of fish pathology
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.83-90
• /
• 1989

Edwardsiella tarda, the causative organism of Edwardsiellosis, was isolated from the water and the eel, Anguilla japonica of the recirculating eel culture ponds in 1988. E. tarda was always isolated from the water of eel culture ponds in the number of log 2.30~log 4.78 CFU/$m{\ell}$ without distinguishable seasonal characteristics. The counts of isolated E. tarda were changed with the health condition of the eel, i. e., a number of E. tarda were isolated from all checked organs, intestine contents, liver, spleen and kidney of the diseased eel, however, it was hardly isolated from spleen and kidney of the healthy eel. The isolates were classified according to o-agglutinating test into three serotypes (I, II, III). There were no distinct differences in the composition of the serotypes between intestine contents of eel and pond water samples(I, 52.4~53.3% ; II, 20.0~23.8% ; III, 4.8~6.7%). Serotype I was ascendant in the spleen(66.7%) and the kidney(73.7%) samples. By experimental challenge, most of serotype I proved highly virulent to eel in comparison with the other serotypes tested.

• Journal of fish pathology
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.37-46
• /
• 1994

A total 103 strains of Edwardsiella tarda was isolated from eel culture-ponds and examined for drug resistance, distribution and transferabilities of R plasmids. The drugs used were lincomycin(LM), penicillin(PM), sulfamethazine(SF), sulfadimethoxine(SD), cephalosprin(CP), chloramphenicol(CH), streptomycin(SM), oxytetracycline(OT), ampicillin(AP), oxolinic acid(OA), kanamycin(KM), amikacin(AK), gentamicin(GM) and enrofloxacin(EF). Two strains were resistant to the all drugs used, and all isolates were multiply resistant to drugs(at least 8 among 14 drugs), mostly restricted to LM(103 strains), PM(103 strains), SD(103 strains), SF(103 strains), CP(102 strains), CM(101 strains), SM(100 strains), OT(94 strains), AM(92 strains), OA(80 strains), KM(60 strains), AK(30 strains), GM(19 strains) and EF(14 strains), in combination at high degree showing 34 different drug resistant patterns. The most frequently encountered patterns were LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AP OA KM(22 strains, 22.4%) followed by LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AP OT(12 strains, 11.7%). LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AP(7 strains, 6.8%), LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AP OA KM AK GM(6 strains, 5.8%) and LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AM OX KM AK GM(6 strains, 5.8%). Transfer experiment of drug resistance showed that of 103 resistant strains, 100 strains(97%) transferred part or all resistance to all drugs, indicating that most isolates carried conjugally transferrable R plasmids determining multiple drugs. The most frequently observed transferarble R plasmids were LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AP OA(10 strains), LM PM SD SF CP CH SM OT AP OX KM(7 strains) and LM PM SD SF CP CH AP OA(7 strains). These results sugested that eel culture-ponds were highly contaminated with different strains of Edwardsiella tarda, and that contaminated bacteria might be highly multiple resistant strains to drugs, carring transferable R plasmids.