University of Connecticut, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
Riverence Provisions LLC, Buhl, ID 83316, USA.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2022 Oct 3;98(10). doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiac101.
Aquaculture is an important tool for solving the growing worldwide food demand, but infectious diseases of farmed animals represent a serious roadblock to continued industry growth. Therefore, it is essential to understand the microbial communities that reside within the built environments of aquaculture facilities to identify reservoirs of bacterial pathogens and potential correlations between commensal species and specific disease agents. Here, we present the results from 3 years of sampling a commercial rainbow trout aquaculture facility. We observed that the microbial communities residing on the abiotic surfaces within the hatchery were distinct from those residing on the surfaces at the facility's water source as well as the production raceways, despite similar communities in the water column at each location. Also, a subset of the water community seeds the biofilm communities. Lastly, we detected a common fish pathogen, Flavobacterium columnare, within the hatchery, including at the source water inlet. Importantly, the relative abundance of this pathogen was correlated with clinical disease. Our results characterized the microbial communities in an aquaculture facility, established that the hatchery environment contains a unique community composition and demonstrated that a specific fish pathogen resides within abiotic surface biofilms and is seeded from the natural water source.
水产养殖是解决全球粮食需求增长的重要工具，但养殖动物的传染病是该行业持续发展的严重障碍。因此，了解水产养殖设施的建筑环境中存在的微生物群落对于识别细菌病原体的储层以及共生种属与特定疾病因子之间的潜在关联至关重要。在这里，我们展示了对商业虹鳟养殖场进行 3 年采样的结果。我们观察到，孵化场中无生命表面上的微生物群落与水源和生产养殖槽中的微生物群落不同，尽管每个地点的水柱中的群落相似。此外，水群落的一部分种子生物膜群落。最后，我们在孵化场中检测到一种常见的鱼类病原体，即柱状黄杆菌，包括在水源入口处。重要的是，这种病原体的相对丰度与临床疾病相关。我们的研究结果描述了水产养殖设施中的微生物群落，确定了孵化场环境中存在独特的群落组成，并证明了一种特定的鱼类病原体存在于无生命表面生物膜中，并从自然水源中传播。
