Occurrence and Distribution of Actinomycetes in Marine Environs and their Antagonistic Activity against Bacteria that is Pathogenic to Shrimps

Abstract

The mean population density of actinomycetes in water samples from eight stations off Little Andaman Island in India ranged from 0.29 x 103 CFU/ml at station 2 (Naval Area) to 0.45 x 103 CFU/ml at station 4 (Chandra Nallah). Density in sediment samples ranged from 1.21 x 103 CFU/g at station 2 (Naval area) to 3.29 x 103 CFU/g at station 6 (Buttler Bay). Forty-one strains were isolated and tested for their antagonistic activity against Vibrio alginolytics, V. harveyi, and V. parahaemolyticus, bacteria that are highly pathogenic to shrimps. Over 60% of the strains (26) exhibited varying degrees of antagonistic activity. Among them, six showed good activity and were tentatively identified as Streptomyces xantholiticus, S. aureofasciclus, S. galtieri, S. vastus, S. galbus, and S. rimosus. Results suggest that actinomycetes from the marine environment can be used as bio-control agents in shrimp culture systems to control diseases caused by bacteri- al pathogens.