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Carriage of Clostridium perfringens by benthic crabs in a sewage-polluted estuary

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 97; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.05.066

1879-3363

Luciano F. La Sala, Leandro M. Redondo, Juan María Díaz Carrasco, Ana Pereyra, Marisa Farber, Helen Jost, Mariano E. Fernández-Miyakawa,

Fecal contamination and water quality

The Estuary of Bahía Blanca (EBB), Argentina, is an important wetland under intense sewage pollution. 35We investigated the occurrence of Clostridium perfringens (CP) in populations of two benthic crabs 36 (Neohelice granulata and Cyrtograpsus angulatus) and in sediment from the EBB.CP was found in 49.1% 37 of the crabs and all of the isolates were identified as type A. The alpha (cpa) and enterotoxin (cpe) encod-38 ing genes were identified.Genetic analyses identified 13 novel sequence types, and found no clustering 39 among isolates, suggesting that CP is not part of the crabs' commensal flora.CP carriage was 51 times 40 more likely in crabs from the area nearest sewage outfalls compared with crabs from an off-shore site.41 Our in vitro experiments suggest that the carriage of CP in crabs is transient, and the use of these benthic 42 crabs as monitoring organisms of sewage pollution in coastal habitats is proposed.43