Distribution and virulence gene comparison of Aeromonas strains isolated from diseased fish and water environment

A total of 71 Aeromonas strains were isolated in the south of Jiangsu Province China in order to analyze the difference of Aeromonas spp. distribution between diseased fish and water environment. The sequence of 16S rDNA and gyrB demonstrated that the 71 Aeromonas isolates could be divided into 4 species, including A. veronii (55), A. hydrophila (11), A. salmonicida (3) and A. media (2). A. veronii was the most common species isolated from fish and water environment. All Aeromonas isolates were screened for three putative virulence genes, aer, hly and alt. hly was the most common gene among three virulence genes.