ARS | Publication request: EVIDENCE THAT ENTERIC SEPTICEMIA OF CATFISH (ESC) WAS PRESENT IN ARKANSAS BY THE LATE 1960'S: NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ESC.

Submitted to: Journal of Aquatic Animal Health
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: November 22, 1998
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Enteric Septicemia of Catfish (ESC), a major bacterial disease of channel catfish, was first reported in a publication in 1979. Using the Gram stain immunochemistry methods we have shown that ESC was present in the late 1960s. The disease remained obscure until the culture of channel catfish was intensified (more catfish raised per surface acre of water) in the mid to late 1970s and by 1985 as the intensification continued, it became the most often diagnosed disease of channel catfish. This information is further useful for making the producers aware that with even further intensification of catfish culture (a very likely happening), other minor bacterial diseases presently found in cultured catfish. Could become major disease problems.

Technical Abstract: The channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) disease enteric septicemia of catfish (ESC) was first reported in 1979 based one isolates obtained from 1976 through 1978. Channel catfish, preserved in 1970 and labeled nutritional cranial spot, that had been stored at the Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center were tested with Gram stains, histology, and immunohistochemistry to demonstrate that these specimens were actually infected by Edwardsiella ictaluri (the causative agent of ESC). A re-examination of catfish disease case records has indicated that ESC may have been present in Arkansas in 1969. Investigation of these old records and specimens has led to insights one the discovery and epidemiology of the disease.