Intestinal microflora of salmonids: a review

TLDR: Bacterial genera isolated from fish intestines vary with salinity, antibiotics, chromic oxide, diet and dietary components such as linoleic acid, and display day-to-day fluctuations.

Abstract: Microflora isolated from fish intestines have been described for a limited number of salmonid fish species. The size of the microbial population of salmonids appears to vary within different regions of the gastrointestinal tract. The genera present in the gastrointestinal tract seem to be those which can survive and multiply in the intestinal tract. The predominant bacteria isolated from the salmonid gut are aerobes or facultative anaerobes. Few investigations have evaluated obligate anaerobes in the digestive tract of salmonids, and these studies have suggested that the population levels of obligate anaerobes are lower than those of facultative anaerobes. The bacterial genera isolated from fish intestines vary with salinity, antibiotics, chromic oxide, diet and dietary components such as linoleic acid, and display day-to-day fluctuations. Acinelobacter spp., Enterobacter spp. and Pseu-domonas spp. are regarded as autochthonous in Oncorhynchus species, while Aeromonas spp., Flavobacterium spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Lactobacillus spp. are suggested as autochthonous in Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus(L.).