title: Seasonal variation of bacterial communities in shellfish harvesting waters: preliminary study before applying phage therapy.
abstract: The recurrent emergence of infections outbreaks associated with shellfish consumption is an important health problem, which results in substantial economic losses to the seafood industry. Even after depuration, shellfish is still involved in outbreaks caused by pathogenic bacteria, which increases the demand for new efficient strategies to control the shellfish infection transmission. Phage therapy during the shellfish depuration is a promising approach, but its success depends on a detailed understanding of the dynamics of bacterial communities in the harvesting waters. This study intends to evaluate the seasonal dynamics of the overall bacterial communities, disease-causing bacterial populations and bacterial sanitary quality indicators in two authorized harvesting-zones at Ria de Aveiro. During the hot season, the total bacterial community presented high complexity and new prevalent populations of the main shellfish pathogenic bacteria emerged. These results indicate that the spring/summer season is a critical period during which phage therapy should be applied.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cunha
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología e Parasitología e CIBUS e Facultad de Biologia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela e Campus Universitario Sur., 15782 Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña), Spain.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Romalde
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Resources (INRB, IP/L-IPIMAR), Av. Brasília, 1449-006 Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: aalmeida@ua.pt.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almeida
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000821:virology*; D001435:Bacteriophages; D044822:Biodiversity; D002980:Climate; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D017747:Seafood / Q000382:microbiology; D012621:Seasons; D012758:Shellfish / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
keywords: Pathogenic bacteria; Phage therapy; Seasonal variation; Shellfish harvesting waters