Isolation and molecular identification of Mycobacterium spp. isolates collected from aquarium fish in Urmia city, northwest of Iran

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Dariush Azadikhah ¹
• Saman Mahdavi ²
• Laya Nasirzadeh ¹
• Mahdi Seyfahmadi ³

¹ Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia branch, Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran

² Department of Microbiology, Maragheh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Maragheh, Iran

³ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Salmas road, Urmia, West Azarbaijan province, Iran

10.22034/ijmcm.2024.710062

Abstract

Fish mycobacteriosis is a zoonotic and chronic progressive disease that caused by different species of mycobacteria. The aims of this study were isolation and molecular identification of Mycobacterium spp from aquarium fish in Urmia city, northwest of Iran. 30 apparently healthy ornamental fishes from different species were collected from five aquarium fish centers and were considered for the isolation and identification of Mycobacterium spp by bacterial culture, biochemical tests and PCR assay. 4 (13.3%) samples contained mycobacteria where biochemical tests revealed that 2 isolates were Mycobacterium marinum and 2 isolates were identified as Mycobacterium fortuitum. All of four isolates were molecularly confirmed by PCR test. The results demonstrated the presence of Mycobacterium spp zoonotic bacterial pathogens in healthy Carassius auratus, Puntius conchonius, Poecilia latipinna and Astronatus ocellatus fish, and underlined the infection risk to humans of not only exposure to infected fish, but also when they manipulate clinically asymptomatic fish.

Keywords

• Aquarium fish
• Mycobacterium marinum
• Mycobacterium fortuitum
• PCR
• Urmia

Main Subjects

• Molecular Microbiology

---