TitleResistance to reinfection in chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha to Loma salmonae (Microsporidia).
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1999
AuthorsKent, ML, Dawe, SC, Speare, DJ
JournalDis Aquat Organ
Volume37
Issue3
Pagination205-8
Date Published1999 Sep 14
ISSN0177-5103
KeywordsAnimals, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Fish Diseases, Fisheries, Gills, Immunohistochemistry, Kidney, Microsporida, Microsporidiosis, Prevalence, Salmon, Seawater
Abstract

Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha were experimentally infected per os with Loma salmonae and held in flow-through seawater tanks at 12 to 14 degrees C. The fish exhibited 100% infection when first examined at 7 wk post initial exposure (p.e.), and by 20 wk p.e. they had completely recovered from gill infections. The recovered fish were then re-exposed the following week. All of these fish showed strong protection to new L. salmonae infections, while naïve fish exposed to the same inoculum developed the infection. Most of the re-exposed fish exhibited a few free spores or spores within phagocytes in the kidney interstitium at 20 to 29 wk p.e., but xenomas were not detected in either the gills or visceral organs. The kidney is the primary site of reticulo-endothelial activity, and thus these spores were likely deposited in the kidney by entrapment by fixed macrophages. It is possible that these spores provide immunologic stimuli to reinforce the resistance to new L. salmonae infections.

DOI10.3354/dao037205
Alternate JournalDis Aquat Organ
PubMed ID10546050