Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis Profiles of Aeromonads Isolated from Healthy and Diseased Helix Aspersa from French Snail Farms

The XbaI digestion patterns of chromosomal DNA of 42 aeromonads isolated from French breeding snails during a new epizootic disease, which rapidly progressed to death during the summer of 1994, were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Biochemical identification to species level was also performed. Interestingly, we found that 76% of the aeromonads isolated from diseased snails clustered into a unique pulsotype (P1) whatever their geographic origin, and were assessed to belong to Aeromonas hydrophila. Other strains belonged to Aeromonas caviae or remained unspecified. Our results provide retrospective supplementary epidemiological evidence for implication of A. hydrophila strains in the snail summer disease.