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Importance of Fish:
• Marine sources provide about 20% of the animal protein eaten by humans.
• The advantage of fish as food is as a result of its easy digestibility & high nutritional
value.
1. Viral infections
2. Bacterial infections - which cause diseases like fin rot and tail rot ,such as
Pseudomonas fluorescens leading to fin rot and fish dropsy
3. Fungal infections -woolly or cottony patches on the surface of fish, and gill rot
causing asphyxia
5. Parasitic
Ectoparasites – Those that occur outside the fish body for example those
that cause Black spot, white spot, fish louse and Nematode.
Necropsy Procedure:
A necropsy is an examination of an animal body after death to determine cause of death and
changes produced by disease.
Reasons for Necropsy:
Necropsy procedure:
1. External Examination
2. Internal Examination
3. Bacterial infections
External Examination:
Internal Examination:
Bacterial infections:
Incubation
Colonies shape and pigmentation are examined
The bacteria from fish only become pathogens when fish are:
Physiologically unbalanced,
Nutritionally deficient, or
Other stressors, i.e., poor water quality, overstocking etc.
Isolation of Bacteria:
OIE (Oficina Internacional de Epizootias) suggested method for the isolation of the bacterial
pathogens is:
Homogenization
Nonselective Isolation:
The Purpose of nonselective medium is the primary isolation of variety of organisms, including
some fastidious ones. The nonselective isolation of bacteria is commonly conducted by enriched
media such as Blood agar.
Selective Isolation of Disease Causing and Fish Spoilage Microflora:
Selective Media:
These media are used to select (isolate) specific groups of bacteria. They incorporate chemical
substances that inhibit the growth of one type of bacteria while permitting growth of another,
thus facilitating bacterial isolation.
In case of isolating fish pathogen, several types of selective media are available.The most
common disease causing and fish spoilage microflora are:
• Mycobacterium spp.
• Streptococcus spp.
• Vibrio spp.
• Aeromonas spp.
Properties:
• Exogenous microbiota.
• Grows faster than the rest of microorganisms.
• Dominant spoilage microbiota.
• Spoilage potential (qualitative ability to produce off-odors).
• Spoilage activity (quantitative ability to produce metabolites).
Factors Affecting the Selection of SSOs:
• Gram reaction
• Oxidase test
• Motility
For example, Gram et al. (1987) isolated “black” colonies on Iron Agar (IA) with the ability to
reduce TMAO (Trimethylamine oxide) to TMA and produce H2S, from spoiled fish at 0°C and
identified as Alteromonas putrefaciens.
• Pseudomonas sp.
• Vibrio sp.
• Aeromonas sp.
• Achromobacter sp.
• Flavobacterium sp.
• Coryneforms sp.