Thangapalam Jawahar Abraham , Harresh Adikesavalu

Department of Aquatic Animal Health, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Chakgaria, Kolkata - 700094, West Bengal, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 13   doi: 10.5376/ija.2016.06.0013
Received: 03 May, 2016    Accepted: 29 Jun., 2016    Published: 13 Jul., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abraham T.J., and Adikesavalu H., 2016, Association of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Fry Mortalities with Dropsy, International Journal of Aquaculture, 6(13): 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2016.06.0013)

This communication reports the association of S. maltophilia in the mortalities of nursery grown African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) fries with distended abdomen and its phenotypic characterization. The gross and clinical signs observed in diseased fries were lethargy, body discolouration, mild fin/tail rot, distended abdomen, swelled intestine and other internal organs, and visceral haemorrhages. The abdominal cavity of affected fries was filled with transparent viscous ascites with jelly-like mass. Morbidity and mortality was about 60% and 20-25% of the total population, respectively. The BioMerieux Vitek 2 compact system identified the strains as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. The strains were positive for protease and lipase activity and exhibited alpha haemolytic on sheep blood agar. Our results suggest that S. maltophilia in emerging as a pathogen of C. gariepinus, which is a serious cause for concern.

Clarias gariepinus; Stenotrophomonas maltophilia; dropsy; phenotypic characterization