Determination of the phenotypic and genetic diversty of Lactococcus garvieae

Fish were sampled from 5 different fish farms between 2009 and 2010 to isolate Lactococcus garvieae, which were isolates from 3 different farms. In addition to isolated L. garvieae 38 strains from different regions of Turkey and different countries such as Italy, Spain, France, and Japan, were studied. All isolates were identified with classic biochemical tests and API 20 Strep. Although a complete homogenity was observed in the strain identified by classical test, partial heterogenity was observed in the API 20 Strep tests. In general, according to the API 20 Strep test, it was found that the ATCC 49156 referance strains, biotype showed common features with the isolates obtained from Turkey. However, they had many different biochemical characteristics from the isolates that were isolates from the animals in İtaly, Spain and France. In this study, for the purpose of genotyping of the isolates, optimized ERIC-PZR method was used. L. garvieae strains were grouped in 8 clusters according to their low rate of similarities. This grouping showed was taxonomic heterogeneity between the strains. When we compared the results of the classical biochemical and API20 Strep tests with ERIC-PZR, the results are similar except a few strains. Disc diffusion method was used to test antibiotic resistance of the L. garvieae isolates. Strains of L. garvieae were sensitive to oxytetracycline, amoxillin, florfenikol, tetracycline and were resistant to gentamicin and sulfamethoxazole + trimethoprim.