Adhesion of Yersinia ruckeri to fish farm materials:: influence of cell and material surface properties

Two strains (an environmental strain and a reference one coming from a national culture collection) of Yersinia ruckeri, a fish pathogenic bacterium, are characterised according to the ability to adhere on wood, concrete, polyvinylchloride (PVC) and fibreglass, four materials commonly found in fish farms. The relationships between adherence, bacterial and support hydrophobicities and surface roughness are investigated. The results show that: (i) Y. ruckeri is strongly hydrophilic; (ii) the environmental strain exhibits a higher ability to adhere than the reference one: and (iii) for the two strains a strong correlation is observed between roughness amplitude (RA) of the support material and adhesion ability. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.