Screening for and Identification of an Anti‐clam Vibrio Marine Bacterium from an Aquaculture Pond in the Yellow Sea

Abstract

AbstractThe identification and use of probiotic bacterial stains is a practical approach to protect clams grown in aquaculture farms from disease. The inhibition of the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio alginolyticus was used as a trait to select a candidate probiotic bacterial strain in this study. An ideal bacterial strain, SW‐1, was isolated from seawater from a clam farm. The selected isolate SW‐1 was identified based on its physiological, morphological, and biochemical characteristics and its 16S rDNA sequence. The experiments showed that strain SW‐1 had a high similarity to Pseudoalteromonas piscicida and could inhibit the growth of V. alginolyticus (V.‐MP‐1). SW‐1 also improved the survival of clams following challenge with the pathogenic V.‐MP‐1. The mortality of clams was 100% after infection with 108 CFU/mL of V. alginolyticus, whereas mortality was only 11% when clams were infected with 108 CFU/mL of V.‐MP1 while simultaneously exposed to the same concentration of Pseudoalteromonas SW‐1, indicating that Pseudoalteromonas SW‐1 could be used as a probiotic to protect farmed clams, and thus reduce the effects of antibiotics on aquatic environment.