Hirudo medicinalis has virtually an obligatory symbiotic relationship with the bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila (= Pseudomonas hirudinis), the only species of bacteria which lives in its gut (Zirpolo 1923; Lehmensick 1941, 1942; Hornbostel 1941; Büsing 1951; Büsing et al. 1953; Wilde 1976; Jennings and Van der Lande 1967; Whitlock, O'Hare, Saunders and Morrow 1983). Aeromonas hydrophila is import...

We report a case of necrotizing fasciitis with probable in vivo transfer of a TEM-24 plasmid-borne extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL) gene from Enterobacter aerogenes to Aeromonas hydrophila. The patient was an 87-year-old female with a leg lesion following a trauma. She had a history of rheumatoid polyarthritis treated by 10 mg of prednisone per day, refractory anemia, and chronic venous insu...

On 16 February 2002, a total of 26 people presented to the emergency department of the local hospital in the rural town of Collie in southwest Western Australia with many infected scratches and pustules distributed over their bodies. All of the patients had participated in a "mud football" competition the previous day, in which there had been ~100 participants. One patient required removal of a...

Effects of β-glucan on innate immune responses and survival were studied in pacu experimentally infected with Aeromonas hydrophila. Fish fed diets containing 0, 0.1% and 1% β-glucan were injected with A. hydrophila. β-glucan enhanced fish survival in both treated groups (26.7% and 21.2% of the control, respectively). Leukocyte respiratory burst and alternative complement pathway activities were...

Thirty-one isolates of Aeromonas spp. from food and water in Norway were classified and tested for possible virulence factors including cytotoxins (tissue cultures, PCR), enterotoxins (PCR) and invasion ability (Caco-2 cells). Five different species were recorded, A. caviae (9/31), A. hydrophila (15/31), A. schubertii (3/31), A. trota (3/31) and A. veronii biovar veronii (1/31). One of the A. h...

The aim of this study was to isolate β-haemolytic Aeromonas hydrophila strains from live rainbow trouts (Oncorhynchus mykiss) destined for human consumption and to investigate their resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Sterile swab samples were collected from 52 rainbow trouts. Fifteen (28.8%) βhaemolytic Aeromonas strains were isolated from collected 52 swab samples. Through API 20 NE, 12 of the...

Human erythrocyte membrane glycerophospholipids are deacylated by Aeromonas hydrophila 13-h culture supernatants, resulting in the production of cholesterol ester, free fatty acid, and water-soluble phosphates. This activity appears to be due to the actions of an acyltransferase (phosphatide:cholesterol acyltransferase, EC 2.3.1 group) and a phospholipase (phosphatide acyl-hydrolase). The enzym...

Aeromonas hydrophila is a gram-negative, rod-shaped, facultative, anaerobic bacterium that is ubiquitous in freshwater and slightly brackish aquatic environments and infects fish, humans, reptiles, and birds. Recent severe outbreaks of disease in commercial channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) aquaculture ponds have been associated with a highly virulent A. hydrophila strain (VAH), which is ge...

The genus Aeromonas comprises known virulent and avirulent isolates and has been implicated in waterborne disease. A common infection model of human gastroenteritis associated with A. hydrophila uses neonatal mice. The goal of this research was to evaluate whether a murine small intestinal cell line could provide comparable results to the gene expression changes in the neonatal mouse model. Cha...

The present study was conducted to determine the virulence and cytotoxicity of Aeromonas hydrophila strains isolated from seafood samples collected from 5 major fish markets in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Among 73 A. hydrophila strains isolated from fish and shrimp samples, 86.3% exhibited haemolysis, 78.1% produced slime, 98.63% produced protease and also demonstrated cytotoxicity on Vero cell...