Diseases listed by the OIE

Appearance & Development of a Aquatic

Disease

PATHOGEN

ENVIRONMENT HOST
Typical Causes of Disease

Environmental Stress Bad Water Quality Pathogen Excess Physical Damage Other causes
* Noises & vibrations * Ammonia * Introduction of ill * From other animals & * Low genetic immunity
* Incorrect tank design * NO2 animals bullying * Incorrect diet
* Incorrect water * NO3 * Pathogen unknown to * From objects * Bad luck (sods taw)
conditions the cultured animal * Incorrect substrate
* Fluctuation conditions
* Debris build-up
Toxin Build-ups
 Viral infection

Bacterial infections, such as Pseudomonas fluorescence, Vibrio

Pathogens parahaemolyticus

which can Fungal infections

cause an Water mold infections, such as Saprolegnia sp.

aquatic
animal Metazoan parasites , such as copepods

diseases Unicellular parasites, such as Ichthyophthirius multifiliis leading to

ich

Certain parasites like Helminths for example Eustrongylides

Bacteria
• Bacteria are not visible to the
naked eye
• These microorganisms are very
small dimensions, usually
between 0.5 and 10 microns (um)
• But, when bacteria multiply in
great number on a solid medium,
they form visible colonies
representing millions or billions of
individual cells
• The cells can be seen only under a
microscope from a cells stained
with a dye on a microscope slide
 Bacteria differ from other cells in that
they are prokaryotic (lack a nuclear
membrane)

All its genetic material is linked in a

Cont…. single chromosome

The cytoplasm is densely packed with

RNA and is finely granular because of
the presence of ribosome
 All the time, because there is a wide variety of bacteria pathogens

When a the Many of these bacteria capable of causing disease are considered by some
to be saprophytic in nature

aquatic This bacteria only become pathogens when the animal are physiologically

animals are unbalanced, nutritionally deficient, or there are other stressors, i.e. poor
water quality, overstocking, which allow opportunistic bacterial infections to
proceed
susceptible to
bacteria Some of these bacterial pathogens are fastidious and require special growth
media for laboratory culture.

Others growth at different temperatures, dependent upon the aquatic

environmental temperature of the animal.
The following diseases of fish are listed by the
OIE:
• Infection with Aphanomyces invadans (epizootic ulcerative syndrome)
• Infection with epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus
• Infection with Gyrodactylus salaris
• Infection with HPR-deleted or HPR0 infectious salmon anaemia virus
• Infection with infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus
• Infection with koi herpesvirus
• Infection with red sea bream iridovirus
• Infection with salmonid alphavirus
• Infection with spring viraemia of carp virus
• Infection with viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus.
The following diseases of molluscs are listed
by the OIE:
• Infection with abalone herpesvirus
• Infection with Bonamia ostreae
• Infection with Bonamia exitiosa
• Infection with Marteilia refringens
• Infection with Perkinsus marinus
• Infection with Perkinsus olseni
• Infection with Xenohaliotis californiensis.
The following diseases of crustaceans are
listed by the OIE:
• Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease
• Infection with Aphanomyces astaci (crayfish plague)
• Infection with Hepatobacter penaei (necrotising hepatopancreatitis)
• Infection with infectious hypodermal and haematopoietic necrosis virus
• Infection with infectious myonecrosis virus
• Infection with Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (white tail disease)
• Infection with Taura syndrome virus
• Infection with white spot syndrome virus
• Infection with yellow head virus genotype 1.
The following diseases of amphibians are
listed by the OIE:
• Infection with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
• Infection with Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans
• Infection with Ranavirus species.
Common symptoms
• Lethargic swimming
• Loss of appetite
• Respiratory distress
• Jumping from the water
• Colour of gill changed
• Fins become frayed (fish)
Bacterial diseases in
finfishes
 Causative agent:

• Flavobacterium columnare

Species affected:

• Ayu, tilapia, common carp, channel catfish goldfish, robu

Gross signs:
Columnaris • The appearance of a white spot on some part of the head, gills,

disease
fin or body
• A zone with a distinct reddish tinge usually surrounds this
• On the gills, the lesions are more necrotic
• On the skin, they develop into hemorrhagic ulcers

Effects on host:

• F.columnare is an opportunistic pathogen widely distributed in

the water
• F.columnare attacks fish primarily through the gills or abraded
epidermal areas
 Diagnosis:

• Columnaris disease can be presumptively

diagnosed from disease signs on the skin
and gills of the host and from squash
preparations made from scrapings of the
affected areas.

Cont… Prevention and control

• CuSO4 dip at 40 ppm for 20’ or 500 ppm for

1’
• Oxolonic acid dip at 1 ppm for24 h
• Sulphamerazine or oxytetracycline at 220
mg/kg/day for 10 days followed by 50 to 75
mg/kg/day for 10 days
 Causative agent:

• Edwardisella tarda or E.ictaluri

Species affected:

• Tilapia, channel catfish, mullet, carp, etc

Gross signs:

• Edwardsiella tarda infection manifests itself by the presence of small,

Edwardsiellosis 3-5 mm cutaneous or skin lesions located dorso laterally on the body
• The skin loses pigmentation
• A foul smelling gas is emitted when the skin is incised
• Internally, there is generalized hyperthermia and enlargement of the
liver and kidney

Effects on hosts:

• E. tarda infection usually occurs during the warm, summer months

• Affected fish lose mobility of the caudal or tail portion of the body
• E tarda infection may cause lesionas in the dermis, musculature and
visceral organs of the host
 Diagnosis:

• The bacterium is easily isolated from muscle and internal

organs of clinically diseased fish on most general-purpose
media such as brain heart infusion agar (BHA) and tryotic soy
agar (TSA)
• Small punctate colonies develop in 24-48 h on inoculated
Cont…. media

Prevention and control

• Improve water quality

• Reduce stocking density
• Apply oxytetracycline at 55 mg/kg fish for 10 days
 Causative agent:

• Vibrio alginolyticus, V.anguillarum and V.vulnificus

Species affected

• Grouper, rabbitfish, milkfish, seabass, sea bream, etc.

Gross signs:

• The first signs of the disease are usually anorexia or loss of appetite, with

Vibriosis darkening either of the whole fish or of particular areas of the dorsum or
back.
• Other common signs of vibriosis are hemorrhagic spot on different parts
of the body including necrotic fins, eye opacity and exophthalmia.

Effects on hosts:

• Usually occurs in the warm summer months, specially when the stocking
densities are high
• When an outbreak occurs, mortalities of 50% or higher czn be observed in
young fish.
• When harvested, fish may have large necrotic lesions in the middle of the
muscle mass.
 Diagnosis

• Squash preparations of kidney, liver, spleen,

necrotic muscle tissue and other organs reveal
bacterium.
• The pathogen can usually be isolated from
infected organs in pure culture using standard
bacteriological media.
Cont.
Prevention and control

• Maintain good water quality, good husbandry

procedures and lower stocking densities.
• Apply oxytetracycline at 77 mg/kg of fish or
nitrofurazone at 56 mg/kg of fish for 10 days
• Vaccine