Abstract

Peng Zaiqing *, Zhuang Zhixia , Huang Rongfu and Lu Zhiqiang

The aquicultural pathogen Vibrio spp. is popular and harmful to mariculture animals and even resulted in human enterogastrtis. However, little is known about the abundance and distribution of marine pathogen in Bohai Sea. In the present study, the distributions of the typical pathogens, including Escherichia Coli, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio fluvialis and Vibrio harviyi, were investigated using protein micro array method from the Bohai Sea samples, which collected in spring and summer in 2005, respectively. The results showed that: (1) Temporally, the tested typical pathogens were more abundant in summer than in spring, as supported by the total pathogenic Vibrios averaged 3.05 × 104 /L in spring while 2.48 × 105 /L in summer; (2) Spatially, in summer, pathogenic Vibrios in Bohai Bay was 4.87, 10.52 and 7.15 times higher than that in Liaodong Bay, Laizhou Bay and Central Bohai Sea, respectively (p = 0.034, 0.013 and 0.012, respectively). (3) Total pathogenic Vibrios in coastal area was 4.68 times higher than that in central area (p = 0.0279 < 0.05), showing a decline trend in abundance. (4) All the pathogenic Vibrios varied between spring and summer, with greatest variance in V. fluvialis. Both V. parahaemolyticus and V. harveyi had no significant variances. Bohai Bay was heavily polluted and relatively not fit for mariculture. V. fluvialis dominated in Bohai Sea and was a possible major pathogen of vibriosis.