Isolation of Streptococcus parauberis from starry flounder, Platichthys stellatus Pallas

Abstract

A disease with mass mortality characterized exophthalmia and abdominal distension by ascites occurred in farmed starry flounder, Platichthys stellatus in Pohang since October of 2007. Severe necrosis and infiltration of inflammatory cells were observed in tissue histopathological sections from liver, kidney, spleen and heart of the diseased fish. The catalase-negative and gram positive cocci with -hemolysis were isolated from moribund fish. Analysis of the API profiles and the multiplex PCR of the isolates showed that strains were identified as Streptococcus parauberis. In API profiles, S. parauberis isolated from starry flounder differed from those of olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus to the test of arginine dihydrolase, D-mannitol, D-sorbitol and α-lactose. And the strains, PH0710 and PH0711, were strongly lethal for starry flounder (LD50 ranging from 4.2×103~4.2×102 cfu/fish at 7 days after intraperitoneally inoculation). This is the first report on a S. parauberis infection in starry flounder.