Saprophytism of a fish pathogen as a transmission strategy

Fish farming creates conditions where disease transmission is enhanced and antibiotic treatments are commonly used to cure bacterial diseases to prevent severe losses due to infections. Ability to persist in such an environment has been suggested to lead to the evolution of high virulence. Columnaris disease caused by Flavobacterium columnare is a growing problem in freshwater fish farming. Transmission of the disease is poorly known, and survival of F. columnare in the rearing environment has not been studied. This paper addresses both transmission of columnaris disease and survival strategy of F. columnare. Saprophytic activity of F. columnare was studied by infecting rainbow trout fingerlings before and immediately after death and by following bacterial shedding from the fish carcasses. From fish killed immediately after infection, bacteria were shed at high rates for 5 days, and from fish exposed to F. columnare post mortem for 8 days. In another experiment, rainbow trout fingerlings were experimentally infected with F. columnare and monitored for transmission of the bacteria post infection until and after the death of the fish. The transmission of columnaris disease to living rainbow trout was the most efficient from dead fish, from which bacteria were shed into water at higher rates than from living fish. We also found that F. columnare can survive at least for 5 months in both sterilized distilled and lake water. These results show that death of the host causes no cost for F. columnare; it thrives in alive and dead fish, and in water. Saprophytism may have been a transition stage to pathogenicity of this originally harmless water bacterium, and maintained as an effective transmission and survival strategy of F. columnare. Our findings also suggest that F. columnare may be able to persist in the rearing environment during antibiotic treatments of the living fish.