Gut Bacterial Community of Shrimp with Enteritis

Shrimp enteritis has become a common and recurrent disease in shrimp aquaculture, causing significant economic losses and management challenges for farmers. However, the specific causative pathogen remains unclear. Koch's postulates have long been considered the gold standard for identifying the causative agents of diseases based on the isolation of various potential pathogens, but the large-scale and non-directional isolation and cultivation of pathogenic strains is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Amplicon sequencing has been used to identify and characterize pathogens in various clinical samples and provides more opportunities to guide the isolation and cultivation of potential pathogenic strains. Integrating amplicon sequencing with Koch's postulates might help to identify the key pathogen associated with shrimp enteritis rapidly. Here, a potential pathogen that causes the shrimp enteritis was directly isolated based on the results of high-throughput sequencing analysis from the diseased shrimp. Satisfying Koch's postulates, the isolated strain VSP1 was confirmed as the pathogenic bacterium. These findings enhance our understanding of emerging shrimp pathogens and provide a basis for early detection and control strategies in aquaculture.