Impact of climatic change on emergence of bacterial fish diseases

Climate change is the most influential threat facing the life of all creatures on the Planet Earth. Such change is an ongoing degrading process that has been running for more than three centuries since the global industrial revolution. The climate change has been tightly linked to carbon dioxide and other green gas emissions with consequent colossal rise in average global temperatures causing what is called “Global Warming". Global warming has critical impacts on all forms of terrestrial and aquatic creatures. Sea level rise, ocean acidification, eutrophication, coastal erosions, invasive species and disease emergence are all the deleterious end products of global warming.. Bacterial pathogens are among the most changeable disease agents due to the direct effects of climate change. Mesophilic bacteria such as countable members of streptococci, enterococci, lactococci, aeromonads, vibrios, flavobacteria and few members of family Enterobacteriaceae are considered the most eminent product of global warming. In aquatic life either in open water or captive environments, several events of mass kills among fish, shrimps, oysters, and corals have been recently linked to mesophilic bacterial pathogens invasion. Streptococcus agalactiae, Enterococcus faecalis, Lactococcus garviae, Aeromonas hyrophila, V. anguillarum, Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio alginolyticus, Yersinia ruckeri, Tenacibaculum maritimum, Flavobacterium maritimus and Mycobacterium species are ideal examples for such dominance of mesophilic pathogens with deleterious impacts on aquatic animals' health. Ultimately, the unexpected emergence of highly virulent strains of these bacterial pathogens could drive uncountable aquatic species to be endangered. Therefore, the wise search for national, regional and international forums for counteracting the future negative impacts of climate change on wild and captive aquatic species should be mandated by all country leaders of southern hemisphere.