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...
