RESUMO
Thirty-five strains of Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from feces of diarrheal patients and from the environments were collected from Thailand and Japan. The physiological, biochemical, and serological characteristics, antibiotic resistance patterns and cell surface-related properties were compared. The diarrheal and environmental isolates of A hydrophila were found to be remarkably consistent in general culture and biochemical characteristics, with the exception of the reaction to D-arabinose in which the diarrheal strains were positive and environmental strains were negative. The plasmid patterns and cell surface-related properties of the environmental and diarrheal isolates were different. All strains produced Vero cell cytotoxin, hemolysin and lecithinase at 37 degrees, 30 degrees and 15 degrees C. In contrast, 83% of the environmental strains produced these virulence factors even at 4 degrees C. All strains indicated almost uniform susceptibility to the 16 antibiotics tested. Variations were found in the plasmid profile, toxin production in relation to the differences of temperature and cell surface-related properties of the strains. These variations between the clinical and environmental isolates could have potential as epidemiological markers for the sources of strains.