A pathogenic bacterium (CCF00024) was isolated from the kidney and liver of the diseased channel catfish with acute epidemic disease. Artificial infection proved that the bacterium was the pathogen of the disease. Its morphological, physiological, biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence analysis were studied. The isolated strain is an aerobic, non-fermentative bacterium. The bacteria are gram negative, rods, with polar multi-flagella; Oxidase-negative, methyl-red-negative, lysine decarboxylase-positive, DNAase-positive, urease-positive, lipase-positive and protease-positive. The bacteria can't utilize most of sugars with production of acid, except maltose and mannose. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by comparing the 16S rDNA sequence of the isolated strain (GenBank accession number AY970826) with other relative bacteria species in the RDP and GenBank databases. In the phylogenetic tree CCF00024, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia 13637T, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia MG958T, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia M5-1 constitute a branch. The similarity value between strain CCF00024 and those 5 strains Stenotrophomonas maltophilia are 99.4%-99.6%. According to morphological, physiological, biochemical characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, the isolated strain (CCF00024) is identified as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.