Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

Coral reefs are both ecologically and economically important, serving as nurseries for fisheries, protecting the coastline from storm surges, and generating income from tourism. Since 2014, a wide variety of corals have been dying from unexplained causes throughout South Florida with mortalities ranging from North Miami to the Florida Keys.

This fish species has become a powerful model organism for the study of vertebrate biology, developmental and genetic research, and more recently infectious disease studies.

Native freshwater mussels are a keystone species and are considered both ecosystem engineers, improving habitat for other species, and indicator species important in assessing the health of the ecosystem.

Low early marine survival rates of Puget Sound steelhead ( Oncorhynchus mykiss), the state fish of Washington, have contributed to its dramatic population decline and current listing as a “Threatened Species” under the Endangered Species Act. Determining the cause(s) of this elevated mortality remains a primary objective of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project, a large US / Canada effort...

In the decades following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS), it has become increasingly apparent that oil can be toxic at extremely low concentrations to developing fish embryos including herring, where some toxic phenotypes may be apparent during embryogenesis, but some are delayed until later in life. Therefore, acute and lingering oil may act as an insidious selective force within populations...

Using an approach that involves a combination of field- and laboratory-based studies, we are investigating fish health factors that may be contributing to the failed recovery of Pacific herring populations in Prince William Sound, AK. Field studies are providing infection and disease prevalence data to inform the population models, serological data that indicate the prior exposure history and...

Viruses occur in many cultured and wild stocks of fish. William Batts collaborates with many government, state, tribal, and private research and diagnostic laboratories to aid in identification of these unknown replicating agents of uncertain pathogenicity. Typically, viruses can be replicated in a variety of fish cell lines and investigated at several temperatures to see if the cytopathic effect...

In fish, as in humans, an intact epidermis is critical to defense against entry of pathogens into the skin. Macroscopic examination of scale loss is the principal method of evaluating physical damage to juvenile salmonids out-migrating through hydroelectric dams in the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and in fish subjected to capture and handling procedures in locations such as hatcheries, fish bypass...

Fish Diseases - Ichthyobodo

There has been long history of disease outbreaks and economic losses in wild and farmed carp species due to SVCV. Formerly thought to be restricted to Europe and Asia, SVCV was detected for the first time in North America from diseased koi at a North Carolina fish farm in 2002, and there were extensive eradication efforts with 135,000 fish euthanized in addition to the ~15,000 that died from the...

At the request of the State of Washington, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Western Fisheries Research Center has been providing technical advice and conducting research regarding the emergence of IHNV in the watersheds of coastal Washington State.

The Fish Health Section provides reference laboratory services to identify viral pathogens submitted by staff from the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) fish health laboratory.