TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL EASTERN FISH HEALTH WORKSHOP JOHN CARVER INN, PLYMOUTH, MA 30 MARCH - 2 APRIL, 1998 Relative Susceptibility Of Arctic Char Salvelinus alpinus To Experimental Challenge With Selected Bacterial Fish Pathogens Clifford E. Starliper1, Graham L. Bullock2, Joe Hankins2, and Jay Mathias2 1U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Leetown Science Center, National Fish Health Research Lab, Kearneysville, WV 25430; 2The Conservation Fund, Freshwater Institute, Shepherdstown, WV 25443. Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus is a salmonid fish common to colder regions of northern North America. Increasingly, they are being intensively cultured for sport fisheries and as a marketable food fish, particularly in more southern regions where salmon and trout species are the more prevalent cultured salmonids. Along with this, is increased potential for disease and epizootics, particularly in warmer water temperatures which are more advantageous to some bacterial pathogens. This study was initiated to evaluate the susceptibility of Arctic char, relative to rainbow Oncorhynchus mykiss and brook Salvelinus fontinalis trout, to experimental challenge with the bacterial pathogens: Aeromonas salmonicida, cause of furunculosis; Renibacterium salmoninarum, cause of bacterial kidney disease; and biotypes I and II Yersinia ruckeri, cause of enteric redmouth. Groups of fish were exposed by bath and intraperitoneal injection (R. salmoninarum, injection only). Water temperature for all challenges was 12.5 C. Observation periods (14-70 d) followed each challenge; mortalities were recorded and death to each pathogen confirmed by biochemical or serological methods. Total mortality of Arctic char due to R. salmoninarum and A. salmonicida was similar to brook trout, and both hosts were more susceptible than rainbows. Mortality to both biotypes of Y. ruckeri was similarly high for Arctic char and rainbow trout, and contrasted to relatively low mortality in brook trout.   Return to 23rd Annual Eastern Fish Health Workshop Return to Leetown Science Center Home Page