Edwardsiellosis

➡️  Prevention

▪️  Good management practices is the best way to prevent E. tarda infections.

▪️ Several vaccine protocols have been developed to prevent edwardsiellosis, including formalin killed cells, Lipopolysaccharides, extracellular product, live attenuated E. tarda, avirulent E. tarda, ghost cells, outer membrane protein, recombinant proteins, recombinant protein-expressing cells, outer membrane vesicle, and DNA vaccines (Park et al., 2012).

▪️  Phytobiotics or plant-based products that have antimicrobial activity have been used for treatment of many bacterial diseases such as Ginger nanoparticles succeeded in preventing Edwardsiellosis in C. gariepinus (Korni et al., 2021).

▪️ Probiotics such as Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae oral administration improved fish survivability against edwardsiellosis (Essa et al. 2012).

➡️  Treatment

▪️  Sensitivity test should be carried out using the approved antibiotics US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for incorporation in diets.

Ø  Oxytetracycline can be used at 50 mg/kg body weight/ day for 12-14 days, followed by withdrawal period lasting for 21-day.

▪️ Sulphadimethoxine-ormetoprim in 5:1 ratio. 50-100 mg/kg body weight/ day for 5 days followed by withdrawal time for 3 days for skinned fish and 42 days for non-skinned fish before sold. Aquaflor® (florafenicol), ciprofloxacine and sulphadimethexine were also effective medicated antibacterial medicine in controlling edwardsiellosis (Noor El Deen et al., 2017).

➡️  Zoonotic importance

▪️  E. tarda is a zoonotic pathogen and humans become infected from either handling or eating infected fish. Salmonella-like gastroenteritis symptoms due to E. tarda infection have been reported (Schlenker and Surawicz, 2009).

▪️  Liver abscess, peritonitis, cellulitis, bacteremia, intra-abdominal abscess, tubo-ovarian abscess, mycotic aneurysm, and infection of biliary tract are examples of extra-intestinal edwardsiellosis (Wang et al., 2005). The most vulnerable persons to infection are those suffering from other diseases and having worsened immunity.