Arbitrarily Primed PCR To Type Vibrio spp. Pathogenic for Shrimp

A molecular typing study on V/brio strains implicated in shrimp disease outbreaks in New Caledonia and Japan was conducted by using AP·PCR (arbitrarily primed PCR). It allowed rapid identification of isolates at the genospecies level and studies of infraspecific population structures of epidemiological interest. Clusters identified within the species V/brio penaeicida were related to their area of origin, allowing discrimination between Japanese and New Caledonian isolates, as weil as between those from two dilferent bays in New Caledonia separated by only 50 km. Other subclusters of New Caledonian r ~ penaeicida isolates could be identified, but it was not possible to Iink those dilferences to accura te epidemiological features. This contri bution of AP-PCR to the study of vibriosis in penaeid shrimps demonstrates its high discriminating power and the relevance of the epidemiological information provided. This approach would contribute to better knowledge of the ecology of V/brio spp. and their implication in shrimp disease in aquaculture. Vibriosis is a major disease problem in shrimp aquaculture, time-consuming techniques that have limited discriminating causing high mortality and severe economic loss in ail produc power (1, 2). The current genomic approaches used for the ing countries (5,17,21). Viblio spp. are most often considered identification and the typing of Vibrio strains, such as DNA opportunistic pathogens in shrimp, but primary disease caused DNA hybridization and ribotyping (1, 13, 23), arc uscful fo