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Microorganisms
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Research on Bacterial Pathogens in Fish
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Research on Bacterial Pathogens in Fish

A Special Issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607) belonging to the section "Veterinary Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 1511

Editors

Dr. Guilherme Tavares

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Interests: aquaculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Peter Charrie Janampa-Sarmiento

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais—UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Interests: aquaculture; fish disease; bacterial disease; fish diagnosis; antimicrobial resistance; prevention of disease in aquaculture; control and treatment of disease in aquaculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The high potential for global fish farming production is challenged by several obstacles that hinder the sector’s development. Among these, the occurrence of bacterial disease outbreaks is a primary limiting factor. Information on the biology and etiology of bacterial pathogens, the epidemiology of diseases affecting fish species, alternative prevention methods, and strategies for strengthening their immune systems is highly relevant. This is due to the significant global increase in cultivation and commercialization activities, which drives the need for studies related to the health of farmed fish species. Various aspects of bacterial fish diseases require further discussion, including both prophylactic and therapeutic measures.

This Special Issue “Research on Bacterial Pathogens in Fish” aims to provide a collection of high-quality studies focused on identifying and characterizing these bacterial diseases. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

  • Detection and disease diagnosis in wild and cultured fish species;
  • Emerging bacterial pathogens;
  • Pathogenesis;
  • Histopathology;
  • Host immune responses;
  • Molecular epidemiology;
  • Antimicrobial resistance;
  • Vaccine;
  • Treatment and control strategies;
  • Omics studies.

Prof. Dr. Guilherme Tavares
Guest Editor

Dr. Peter Charrie Janampa-Sarmiento
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bacterial pathogens
  • aquaculture
  • immune
  • antimicrobial resistance

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 14331 KB  
Article
Isolation, Identification, Drug Sensitivity, Pathogenicity and Genomic Analysis of Vibrio mimicus from Pelteobagrus fulvidraco
by Peng Shao, Kai Zhang, Zichun Zhou, Zhi Meng, Chunyu Zhang, Wenjing Li, Tongpu Guo, Lei Tang, Wei Xu, Wenli Zhou, Xuying Jia and Jinwei Gao
Microorganisms 2026, 14(8), 1842; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms14081842 - 19 Aug 2026
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Abstract
In this study, pathogenic bacteria were isolated from diseased Pelteobagrus fulvidraco collected from a yellow catfish farm in northern China. The recovered isolate was subjected to Gram staining, transmission electron microscopy observation, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and whole-genome sequencing, followed by systematic analyses [...] Read more.
In this study, pathogenic bacteria were isolated from diseased Pelteobagrus fulvidraco collected from a yellow catfish farm in northern China. The recovered isolate was subjected to Gram staining, transmission electron microscopy observation, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and whole-genome sequencing, followed by systematic analyses of its antimicrobial resistance, pathogenicity and genomic characteristics. Combined with artificial infection assays and multiple comparative verifications, the pathogen was identified as Vibrio mimicus. Clinical observation of naturally infected fish revealed that superficial skin ulcers of varying severity constituted the hallmark clinical sign of this disease. Genomic analysis uncovered major virulence-related genes, including tlh, vmh and tdh, as well as key antimicrobial resistance genes such as crp and ugd. Artificial infection trials confirmed the strong virulence of this isolate against P. fulvidraco, with distinct clinical manifestations triggered by injections of bacterial suspensions at different concentrations. Mortality was first observed in the high-dose group at 2–3 days post-injection, yet no cutaneous ulceration was detected at this stage. The peak incidence and mortality occurred between 3 and 7 days post-challenge, with diseased fish exhibiting lesions identical to those seen in naturally infected individuals. The median lethal dose (LD50) of the isolate was determined to be 1.72 × 105 CFU/mL. Growth gradient assays across varying temperatures and pH values identified the optimal culture conditions for this strain: 33 °C and pH 8.5. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing demonstrated that the isolate was highly susceptible to piperacillin, norfloxacin, roxithromycin, azithromycin, furazolidone, ceftriaxone and tetracycline, whereas it displayed high-level resistance to compound sulfamethoxazole and clindamycin. Collectively, this work lays a scientific foundation for the isolation, identification and comprehensive research of Vibrio mimicus-induced ulcerative disease in yellow catfish. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Bacterial Pathogens in Fish)
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22 pages, 4523 KB  
Article
Multilocus Sequence Typing Reveals New Insights into the Population Structure and Genetic Diversity of Lactococcus spp. from Brazilian Fish
by Guilherme Campos Tavares, Sarah Portes Carneiro, Angelo Carlo Chaparro Barbanti, Angélica Emanuely Costa do Rosário, Helena Caldeira Matos, Cynthia Rafaela Monteiro da Silva Maia, Henrique Lopes Costa, Renata Catão Egger, Luiz Fagner Ferreira Nogueira, Júlio César Câmara Rosa, Felipe Luiz Pereira, Fabiana Pilarski, Silvia Umeda Gallani, Esteban Soto, Carlos Augusto Gomes Leal and Henrique César Pereira Figueiredo
Microorganisms 2026, 14(5), 1131; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms14051131 - 16 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 710
Abstract
Lactococcosis has emerged as an economically and ecologically significant disease in aquatic animals worldwide. This study employed multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to investigate the genetic diversity of Lactococcus spp. strains from Brazilian fish species and evaluate their phylogenetic relationships with global isolates to [...] Read more.
Lactococcosis has emerged as an economically and ecologically significant disease in aquatic animals worldwide. This study employed multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to investigate the genetic diversity of Lactococcus spp. strains from Brazilian fish species and evaluate their phylogenetic relationships with global isolates to elucidate potential epidemiological connections involving multiple host species and distinct geographic regions. A total of 55 isolates from different laboratories had their DNA extracted, followed by the amplification and sequencing of the internal fragments of seven housekeeping genes (als, atpA, tuf, gapC, gyrB, rpoC and galP). Sequence types (STs) and clonal complexes (CCs) were defined. An unrooted neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree was generated using allele profiles from this study and those previously reported from other aquatic animal species. The isolates comprised 29 STs (11 previously reported, 18 novel ones), which were grouped into species-specific CCs: CC5 (L. formosensis); CC4, CC17, CC62 (L. garvieae); CC24, CC29, CC97 (L. petauri). Considerable genetic divergence was observed, with L. formosensis and L. garvieae forming heterogeneous populations, while L. petauri was more homogeneous. These findings describe the MLST structure of the sampled isolates and should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating rather than population-level estimates of genotype prevalence. Phylogenetics confirmed groupings within the CCs and revealed additional phylogenetic clustering patterns. In conclusion, the Brazilian Lactococcus spp. strains analyzed in this study constitute a genetically diverse population based on their STs. MLST and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated genetic relatedness between the L. garvieae and L. formosensis isolates from this study and those from other aquatic animal species. In contrast, all the STs identified for L. petauri in this study were unrelated to the MLST lineages responsible for outbreaks in Brazilian Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and North American rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). This suggests that piscine L. petauri populations in the Americas evolved from distinct ancestral origins. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Bacterial Pathogens in Fish)
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Review

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41 pages, 5162 KB  
Review
Bacteriophage Therapy for Aeromonas salmonicida: A Systematic Evaluation of Translational Readiness in Aquaculture
by Soni Andriawan, Karin Schwaiger, Astrid S. Holzer and Mona Saleh
Microorganisms 2026, 14(10), 2274; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms14102274 - 6 Oct 2026
Abstract
Aeromonas salmonicida is an important threat to the sustainability of aquaculture production and a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance, which has encouraged bacteriophage therapy. This review evaluated the current evidence base for bacteriophage therapy against A. salmonicida. Literature searches were carried [...] Read more.
Aeromonas salmonicida is an important threat to the sustainability of aquaculture production and a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance, which has encouraged bacteriophage therapy. This review evaluated the current evidence base for bacteriophage therapy against A. salmonicida. Literature searches were carried out in Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science prior to 2 April 2026, according to PRISMA 2020 guidelines. After removing 46 duplicate records, a final dataset of 108 unique publications was obtained for analysis. A data extraction form was created to include studies examining bacteriophage activity against A. salmonicida. Information about phage properties‚ experimental conditions‚ treatment outcomes, and study methods was extracted. Study quality and translation potential were evaluated with a qualitative appraisal tool, and a narrative synthesis was chosen due to significant heterogeneity. A total of 22 studies met the inclusion criteria; however, most were conducted in vitro, with few in vivo. Because of heterogeneity in phage–host systems, study designs, and outcomes, systems cannot be compared. Overall‚ bacteriophage therapy is a promising targeted treatment to address A. salmonicida infection. Evidence from these studies suggests more controlled studies‚ phage genome safety assessment‚ evaluation of phage resistance development‚ and field trials are necessary before the adoption of these treatments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Bacterial Pathogens in Fish)
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