Vibrio cholerae pathogen from the freshwater-cultured whiteleg shrimp Penaeus vannamei and control with Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.

Vibriosis has become a major global economic problem in freshwater-farmed whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei). The prevention and control of vibriosis are now priority research topics. In this study, a pathogenic strain (QH) was isolated from vibriosis-infected freshwater-farmed P. vannamei that resulted in leg yellowing and was identified as a Vibrio cholerae isolate through phylogenetic analysis and the API 32GN system. A phylogenetic tree that was constructed using the neighbor-joining method further confirmed the QH isolate as a V. cholerae strain. A virulent outer membrane protein (ompU) gene was found to be present in the QH isolate, which further confirmed its pathogenicity. In addition, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus conferred significant protection against V. cholerae: B. bacteriovorus exhibited significant bacteriolytic effects on the V. cholerae pathogen, possessed a wide prey range that included Vibrio pathogens, and displayed a positive protective efficacy against experimental V. cholerae infection in P. vannamei. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the control of shrimp pathogen V. cholerae with B. bacteriovorus.