| Since 1997, a new pathology seasonally occurs in new caledonian shrimp farms during the warm season and was named Summer Syndrome. Diseased Litopenaeus stylirostris shrimp suffer from a septicemic vibriosis which was attributed to V. nigripulchritudo. Preliminary studies based on a collection of V. nigripulchritudo strains have brought to light different virulence levels according to experimental infections results; three virulence statuses were defined: highly (HP), moderately (MP) and non pathogenic (NP). The aim of this work was to genetically characterize virulent V. nigripulchritudo strains. In a first step the genetic diversity of 58 V. nigripulchritudo strains was analyzed by MLST and AP-PCR, revealing a cluster of HP and MP strains, characterized... |
