Biological information

Description of new pathogens(e.g. Yersinia ruckeri biotype 1; organism are related to

ultramicrobacterium)

Improved taxonomy(vibrios; aeromonads)

Ecology(role of Aeromonas in the aquatic enviroment)

Pathogenicity(role of bacteriophage in the pathogenicity of Vibrio harveyi)

Diagnostic disease:

Serology(ELISAs developed for fiel use)

Molecular methods(sequencing)

RAGGED TAIL FIN

Physical/Behavioral Signs/Symptoms:

A progressive deterioration of the tail and/or fins.

Fins become frayed or their color may fade.

Cause:

A bacterial infection may cause this tail

and fin rot in susceptible fishthose who

are bullied or injured by fin-nipping tank

matesespecially in aquariums with poor conditions.

Treatment:

Tetra Lifeguard
Remove filter carbon and turn off UV sterilizer. Add one tablet per day to each 5 gallons of water.
Treat for 5 consecutive days.

Repeat until symptoms clear. If the clamped

fins are the result of infections, a multipurpose

treatment like Tetra Fungus Guard is the first

 line of treatment. Good practice of adding 1 tbs. aquarium salt per gallon will help prevent
clamped fins.

FUNGUS

Physical/Behavioral Signs/Symptoms:

Initially, youll notice a gray or whitish growth in and on the skin and/or fins.

Untreated fungus resembles a cottony growth.

Eventually, as fungus continues to eat away

at the fishs body, the fish will die.

Cause:

Fish who develop fungus are already

in a vulnerable state, the result of other

serious health problems or attacks,

such as parasites, a physical injury or a bacterial infection.

Treatment:

Tetra Lifeguard
Remove filter carbon and turn off UV sterilizer. Add one tablet per day to each 5 gallons of water.
Treat for 5 consecutive days. Repeat until symptoms clear. Many bacterial infections are
misdiagnosed as fungal, so common medications include both a fungicide and antibiotics. Tetra
Fungus Guard contains malachite green and formalin; treat one tablet per 10 gallons once every 4
days until symptoms are gone. Remove activated carbon and conduct partial water changes in
between treatments.

ANCHOR WORMS

Physical/Behavioral Signs/Symptoms:

Scratching against objects by the affected fish.

A protuberance of whitish-green threads from the fish's skin.

Points of attachment are marked by inflammation.

Cause:

Introduced into aquariums by infected fish, young anchor worms are small crustaceans that burrow
into the fishs skin and enter the muscles. Here they begin to develop and release eggs before they
dieleaving behind damage, which can become infected.

Treatment:
 Common methods include physically removing the parasite and cleaning the wound with an
antiseptic like iodine. Also common is bathing freshwater fish in a seawater bath (35ppt) for about
5 minutes for multiple days until the parasite falls off.

Therapeutic / Treatment measures

Associated Problems

MEASURES

WATER BATH TREATMENTS

Short term

long term

(Ex: Formalin, Salt, Copper Sulfate)

ANTIBIOTICS

(Navare et al., 2008)

Erythromycin, Streptomycin

Tetracycline, Vancomycin

Oxytetracycline

VACCINATION

Recombinant DNA (Biering et. al., 2005), Commercial DNA vaccines (2005) and
Reverse engineered & multiepitope vaccines (2007)

LIMITATIONS

- Not effective to treat internal infections

- Pathogens develop resistance

- Kills beneficial bacterial flora (Gonzalez et al., 2000; Gomez-Gil et al., 2000).

- Not Cost effective; Difficult to develop

Fish-Immune System
Thymus

Anterior or Head Kidney

Spleen
 Non-specific Immunity- Physical Barriers; Non-specific cellular toxicity: AMP; Phagocytosis;
Complement pathway: TNF; Lysozymes, Interferons, Interleukins, cytokines, Natural Antibodies
etc.,

Diseases control
Improved husbandry/management

Movement restriction

Genetic improvement of stock

Antimicrobial compounds(possibly will be banned in future)

Non-specific imunostimulants(e.g. , 1-3 glucan; LPS)

Dietary supliments(vitamins, etc.)

Water treatments

Vaccines (greater range of antigens needed; improved adjuvants and oralises)

Probiotics (biological control)

Probiotics :
Microbial adjuncts which are defined as live micro-organisms that confer a

health benefit on the host .

Intestinal microflora were noticed to result in Health improvement and

promotion of growth (Moriarty,1999 & Roberson et al.,2000 ).

These were found to prevent proliferation of pathogens (Moriarty 1998;

Gomez; Gil et. al., 2000; Verschuere et. al., 2000; Decamp and Moriaty, 2005)

Strengthen immune system (Kailaspathy and Rybka, 1997).

Hence, of late, biocontrolling theory of using probiotics in aquaculture to treat

infections is more focused

However, more attention has to be paid on the selection of a suitable probiotic in

order to achieve the desired benefit in the host species.

Use of bacteria with probiotic nature isolated from the host claimed as an elegent logic.
 Studies on exploration of probiotic nature of gut bacteria as well as their long term
administration are very limited.

Earlier Observations
Bacteria isolated from the gut of L.rohita showed antimicrobial activity against Vibrio harveyi,
Pseudomonas fluorescens, Aeromonas hydrophila and Escherichia coli .

B. subtilis and T. saccharophillus showed higher inhibition of above pathogens

compared to the rest.

Hence these two bacteria were chosen for isolation and characterization of peptides ( Nicin-like
Bacteriocins) responsible for antimicrobial action.

IMMUNOGLOBULINS

Teleostean IgM - tetramer containing eight combining sites (Acton et al., 1971).

Secreted mainly by plasmablasts and plasma like cells of head kidney and elicit
memory responses (Ye et al., 2011)- major components of humoral immune system.

Known to participate in pathogen recognition and activation of the innate immune

system (Shoemaker et al., 2005).

IgD, IgG & IgT are also found to play an important role in teleostean fishes

PHAGOCYTOSIS

The most important processes in all poikilothermic animals (Blazer, 1991; Lange and
Magnadottir, 2003; Magnadottir, 2006).

Granulocytes, monocytes and macrophages, neutrophils are specialized for the pursuit,
capture, ingestion and intracellular destruction of invading microbes by phagocytosis.

The main cells involved in phagocytosis in fish are neutrophils and macrophages
(Secombes and Fletcher, 1992). These cells remove bacteria through a phenomenon
called respiratory burst.

LECTINS

Lectins are carbohydrate binding proteins found in viruses, prokaryotes and

eukaryotes.

These proteins are known to agglutinate foreign cells, precipitate membrane

polysaccharides, glycoproteins or glycolipids mediating different biological processes
such as cell cell interaction, induction of apoptosis, antibacterial and antiviral
actvitity etc.

Lectins are believed to mediate pathogen recognition in fish immune system with
important role in innate immune response.