Identification of Vibrio species isolated from cultured olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in Jeju Island, South Korea

Olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) is the major species developed for aquaculture in South Korea. Over the long history of olive flounder aquaculture, complex and diverse diseases have been a major problem, negatively impacting industrial production. Vibriosis is a prolific disease which continuously damages olive flounder aquaculture. A bacterial disease survey was performed from January to June 2017 on 20 olive flounder farms on Jeju Island. A total of 1710 fish were sampled, and bacteria from the external and internal organs of 560 fish were collected. Bacterial strains were identified using 16 s rRNA sequencing. Twenty-seven species and 184 strains of Vibrio were isolated during this survey, and phylogenetic analysis was performed. Bacterial isolates were investigated for the distribution of pathogenic and non-pathogenic species, as well as bacterial presence in tested organs was characterized. V. gigantis and V. scophthalmi were the dominant non-pathogenic and pathogenic strains isolated during this survey, respectively. This study provides data on specific Vibrio spp. isolated from cultured olive flounder in an effort to provide direction for future research and inform aquaculture management practices. Keywords: Vibriosis in aquaculture, Vibrio population distribution, Aquaculture bacterial disease, Olive flounder, 16S rRNA bacterial identification