Abstract
The morphological, physiological, cultural and biochemical characteristics of nine strains of Vibrio isolated from diseased cultured fish in Italy were determined and compared with Japanese strains of Vibrio anguillarum. Comparative serological study of O-antigen was performed by agglutination method using rabbit anti-J-O-1 to J-O-8 sera. As a result, seven of the Italian isolates were identified as V. anguillarum biovar I and two strains as V. anguillarum biovar II. The serology showed that Italian strains have weak agglutination only with the antisera corresponding to the Japanese serotype classified as J-O-3, J-O-6 and J-O-8.
