Ornamental fish in the Amazon are largely exported to the major centers of distribution and sale of ornamental fish in the world, located in the USA, Japan and Germany and at least eight species stand out as major. These species are collected in the medium and upper Rio Negro, in the municipality of Barcelos, in the state of Amazonas, which accounts for about 70% of exports of ornamental fish from Brazil and generating annual revenues of more than 6 million dollars. Because of the intense ornamental fish trade in the region, importers of fish from the Amazon have questioned the sanity of these animals about microorganisms, especially bacteria and viruses that cause disease in these animals. Bacterial and viral diseases can occur in all species of fish maintained under conditions of exploitation causing significant economic losses. Our goal was to verify the occurrence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in ornamental fishes exported from the state of Amazonas. Biochemical characterization of bacterial isolates from five species of ornamental fish allowed the identification of genus (Staphylococcus,Nocardia, Acinetobacter andLactococcus), with important bacterial species causing mortalities in marine and freshwater fish. While Amazon has great biodiversity, there are few studies to investigate this complexity, mainly related to the presence of pathogens causing bacterial diseases on ornamental fish. The results demonstrate the occurrence of pathogenical bacteria or with pathogenic potential in different species of ornamental fish traded from the state of Amazonas.
Amazon; health; pathogenesis