Carriage of Clostridium perfringens by benthic crabs in a sewage-polluted estuary.
The Estuary of Bahía Blanca (EBB), Argentina, is an important wetland under intense sewage pollution. We investigated the occurrence of Clostridium perfringens (CP) in populations of two benthic crabs (Neohelice granulata and Cyrtograpsus angulatus) and in sediment from the EBB. CP was found in 49.1% of the crabs and all of the isolates were identified as type A. The alpha (cpa) and enterotoxin (cpe) encoding genes were identified. Genetic analyses identified 13 novel sequence types, and found no clustering among isolates, suggesting that CP is not part of the crabs' commensal flora. CP carriage was 51 times more likely in crabs from the area nearest sewage outfalls compared with crabs from a reference site. Our in vitro experiments suggest that the carriage of CP in crabs is transient. The use of these benthic crabs as monitoring organisms of sewage pollution in coastal habitats is proposed.
['La Sala|Luciano F|LF|', 'Redondo|Leandro M|LM|', 'Díaz Carrasco|Juan M|JM|', 'Pereyra|Ana María|AM|', 'Farber|Marisa|M|', 'Jost|Helen|H|', 'Fernández-Miyakawa|Mariano E|ME|']
D000818:Animals D001118:Argentina D001427:Bacterial Toxins D003386:Brachyura D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins D003016:Clostridium perfringens D017753:Ecosystem D063366:Estuaries D019015:Geologic Sediments D010802:Phylogeny D012722:Sewage D010738:Type C Phospholipases D014876:Water Pollution
Clostridium perfringens Crabs Sewage Pollution Monitoring organisms Indicator bacteria