Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) – Gross Pathology

Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) is a disease caused by infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV), genus Isavirus, family Orthomyxoviridae that affects primarily marine-farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Recorded for the first time in 1984 in Norway, it still causes recurrent epidemic outbreaks in Chile. The disease is present in most countries that farm Atlantic salmon: Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Faroe Islands, Canada, USA, and Chile. The virus is adapted to cold-water salmonid fish and has an optimum growth at 15°C. Atlantic salmon is the only species known...

Tenacibaculosis Histopathology

Tenacibaculosis is a serious bacterial disease affecting a great variety of marine fish, especially those species under culture conditions, causing necrotic lesions on the body. Gross pathological signs vary according to the species and age of fish involved. Characteristic clinical signs are ulcerative skin lesions, mouth erosion and ulceration, and fraying of fins and tail. In general, it is mainly a superficial infection, but some isolates are highly toxigenic, and systemic disease can therefore result, involving different internal organs. Several species of Tenacibaculum can be...

Copper toxicity in fish

Liver from Atlantic salmon fingerling showing positive copper reaction in hepatocyte cytoplasm. Rhodamine stain. Note the intracytoplasmic granules (bright red or rust-red) that correspond to lysosomes with sequestered excess copper (arrow).

Copper is a significant trace element necessary for the normal growth and metabolism of living organisms. However, if there is overexposure, it can be toxic. Levels of dissolved copper are often increased from anthropogenic origins such as mine washings and direct applications of algicides, molluscicides or antifouling agents. The most toxic form of copper is the cupric ion (Cu2+). Fish and crustacea are 10 to 100 times more sensitive to the toxicity of copper than mammals. For salmonids, the upper recommended limit is < 0.03...

Bacterial Kidney Disease (BKD) in Salmonids – Gross Pathology

Atlantic salmon (adult-1500 g) with BKD. Note the multiple granulomas in kidney. These severe lesions lead to renal failure

Bacterial kidney disease (BKD) is a chronic systemic infection of salmonid fish, the cause of which is the gram-positive diplobacillus, Renibacterium salmoninarum. Although BKD is most common in salmonids, both farmed and wild, R. salmoninarum is also found in other fish species, such as cyprinids and sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria. R. salmoninarum grows intracellularly in the phagocytic cells of the fish, resulting therefore in a largely granulomatous host response, although the early response to infection does involve significant numbers of neutrophils. Clinical signs and external lesions...

Tenacibaculosis in Fish – Gross Pathology

Figure 1. Rainbow trout displaying tail and peduncle lesions.

Tenacibaculosis is primarily a skin infection causing ulcerative dermatitis in a range of commercially important species worldwide. Three species belonging to the genus Tenacibaculum have been associated with the disease: T. dicentrarchi, T. finnmarkense, and T. maritimum.   These bacteria are all Gram-negative and filamentous.  In marine fish, the most common isolate is T. maritimum. There is variation in the external pathological signs of the disease, depending on the species and age of the fish involved. Different names have been used for this usually ulcerative dermatitis; they include salt water columnaris...

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