Virulence genes contributing to Aeromonas veronii pathogenicity in Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ): approaching the development of live and inactivated vaccines.

This study aimed to develop and evaluate live and inactivated vaccines to Aeromonas veronii pathogenicity in Nile tilapia. Therefore, five well-identified Aeromonas veronii isolates, including A (HY1), A (HY2), A (HY3), A (HY4), and A (HY6) isolated from diseased Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ), were used for vaccine preparation. Virulence genes detected by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lethal dose determination were conducted. Nile tilapia, each with a body weight of 25 ± 0.5 g were divided into six experimental groups (each of 20): T1 group (control), fish were injected with saline as a negative control, T2 group (formalin-killed vaccine) for the A (HY2) strain, T3 group ( formalized killed vaccine) for the A (HY4), T4 group (autoclaved vaccine) for the A (HY2), T5 group (autoclaved vaccine) for A (HY4), and T6 (live vaccine) for A (HY1), triplicate. At the end of the immunization period, all groups were challenged by A. veronii , A (HY2). Blood samples were drawn 21 days post-immunization and 3 days after the challenge test for antibody titer assay. The results showed that the pathogenicity of strains A (HY2) and A (HY4) was the strongest, as the lethality rates (LR) were 100% and 90%, respectively, whereas the pathogenicity was moderate for strains A (HY3) and A (HY6) (LR 60% for each). A (AY1) was the weakest strain as no dead fish was found for this strain. The presence of alt , act, aerolysin, lipase, and fla genes as the main cause of the pathogenesis. The best protective efficacy was obtained from the live vaccine, A (HY1) with a protective rate of about 94.12% (relative percentage of survival, RPS), compared to autoclaved killed vaccines and formalin-killed vaccines. Based on immunoglobulin estimation (IgM) and RPS%, our data concluded that A (HY1) live vaccine had the best vaccine prophylactic effect against the highly pathogenic strain A(HY2).