International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 3 (2013) pp. 6 10

Rapid identification of Vibrio harveyi isolates in Panulirus homarus

V.A.Leslie1, A. Margaret Muthu Rathinam2 and Anusha Balasingh3*

1Madras Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Chennai 600 028, India, Email: lesliecmfri@gmail.com 2Madras Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Chennai 600 028, India, Email: amrathinam@reddifmail.com 3Department of Microbiology, Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai 600 006, India *Corresponding author: anusha_274@yahoo.com

A B S T R A C T

Vibrio is the most common genera associated with Crustaceans often causing significant economic losses. Many Vibrio species are pathogenic to human and have been implicated in the food borne disease. Tail fan necrosis is of recognized constraint in lobsters live holding industry because of reduction in value of affected lobsters. Aquaculture has an important role in the development of many national economics and play a key role in rural development. As the expansion of aquaculture product, there is a concern over the impact of aquaculture on the environmental sustainability and also over the requirements on quality and food safety for consumers and regulators. For this reason, it is a need to improve aquaculture technology and management system to address the need for the eco-friendly production process and food safety concerns in sustainability of national aquaculture. In the present study a total of 11 luminescent bacteria were isolated from the infected Indian spiny lobster Panulirus homarus. Many of the lobsters in the holding facilities developed a range of exoskeleton and tail lesions. The splitting and crackling of the chitin could have allowed the entrance of the bacteria such as Vibrio harveyi, commonly present in water. Predisposing factor could have included handling of the animals, the stress of holding resulting in decreased immunocompetence, injury from fighting or abrasions from the cage wire and elevated water temperatures during the period of holding, V. harveyi is an important pathogen and is extremely difficult to identify because it is phenotypically diverse. Hence PCR technique was employed using 16S rDNA sequences to reduce the duration of identification of this species, a valuable tool for a rapid and accurate detection and hence earlier treatment can be administered which may increase the survival rate from vibriosis.

Keywords

PCR; Tail fan necrosis; Vibrio harveyi; Panulirus homarus; Live lobsters