Prevalence of Bacterial Coinfections within the Industrialized Flow-through Aquaculture Systems in Hainan Province: A Neglected High-Risk Lethal Causative Agent to Hybrid Grouper.

Abstract

is one of the most serious bacterial pathogens to aquatic animals worldwide. Evidence is mounting that coinfections caused by multiple pathogens are common in nature and can alter the severity of diseases in marine animals. However, bacterial coinfections involvinghave received little attention in mariculture. In this study, the results of pathogen isolation indicated that bacterial coinfection was a common and overlooked risk for hybrid groupers (♀× ♂) reared in an industrialized flow-through pattern in Hainan Province. The artificial infection in hybrid groupers revealed that coinfections withstrain GDH11385 (a serious lethal causative agent to groupers) and other isolated pathogens resulted in higher mortality (46.67%) than infection with strain GDH11385 alone (33.33%), whereas no mortality was observed in single infection with other pathogens. Furthermore, the intestine, liver and spleen of hybrid groupers are target organs for bacterial coinfections involving. Based on the infection patterns found in this study, we propose thatmay have a specific spatiotemporal expression pattern of virulence genes when infecting the host. Taken together, bacterial coinfection withis a neglected high-risk lethal causative agent to hybrid groupers in the industrialized flow-through aquaculture systems in Hainan Province.