Biofilm formation of aquatic pathogen, Vibrio campbellii on different contact surfaces

Abstract

The present study was aimed at empirically ascertaining the ability of a pathogenic V. campbellii isolate to form biofilms on different surfaces, commonly used in shrimp aquaculture facilities. Biofilm formation ability on three different surfaces (plastic, galvanized metal and tile) was studied and, biofilm cells were enumerated at 48 h, 96 h and 192 h by spread plate technique in replicates and reproducibility was checked by independent experiments. In this study V. campbellii exhibited the highest potential to form biofilms at 48 h (6.27 x106 ± 4.81x106 CFU/mL) and 96 h (5.82 x106 ±2.50x106 CFU/mL) on tile surface. At 192 h, however, V. campbellii showed high potential to form biofilm on plastic surface (3.49 x106 ± 0.02 x106 CFU/mL). Albeit, V. campbellii showed lower affinity for galvanized metal surface than tile and plastic surfaces at all three time points. Study concludes that biofilm forming ability of V. campbellii on tile and plastic is higher than that of on galvanized metal, and the use of tile and plastic in shrimp aquaculture facilities should be reconsidered.