Vibriose em camarões marinhos ( Litopenaeus vannamei, Boone 1931) cultivados no litoral de Pernambuco, Brasil

Abstract

Shrimp farming all over the world has been affected in the last years by many diseases, that have contributed to the development indexes decline in the production of farmed marine shrimp. On top of the losses due to diseases, it's important to mention that some of the vibrio species are zoonotic agents, meaning they can also cause diseases in humans. Given the importance of bacteria of the genus Vibrio to shrimp farming and public health, the aim of this study was to evaluate marine shrimp, correlate the clinical findings with the presence of the vibrio bacteria and identify the isolated species in the water of the ponds of cultivated marine shrimp in Pernambuco. The samples were collected from four coastal farms and the laboratory analysis consisted of the research and identification of the vibrio bacteria in the hepatopancreas and in the water of the tanks, and identification of any alteration by examination of fresh samples. Thiosulphate citrate bile salt agar (TCBS) was used as the culture media and the selected colonies were later biochemically tested. Four hundred and eighty shrimps were analyzed, of hose 424 (88.33%) showed to have vibrio and one or more alterations. There were identified a total of 903 alterations, the most frequent of muscle tissue (329; 36.43%) and the least frequent of the hepatopancreas tubules (121; 13.40%). When analizing the growth cycle, it was observed the largest number of alterations (503; 55.7%) in the dry season. Taking into account the weight of the shrimps, it was observed 540 (59.8%) alterations when the average weight was 8g. Out of all the analyzed animals, 314 (65.42%) showed to have vibrio, being 38 samples from the ponds water and 605 shrimp isolated. The most abundant species was V. mediterranei, (21.31%), considered an environmental species non pathogenic to shrimp, and the least abundant species were V. campbellii, V. rotiferanus, V. shiloni, V. splendidus, V. tapetis and V. wodanis (0.16 %). A dependency between the alterations found on the exam and the presence of the vibrio was noticed, showing that the aforementioned exam, combined to microbiological analyzes, is an important tool that should be used when monitoring the farms. It was also noticed a great variety of pathogenic and non pathogenic species of vibrio in the studied samples. Such microorganisms could, eventually, be related to shrimp and human infections, which could represent a risk for shrimp farming and public health respectively.