CHAPTER 2

Development of diseases in fish

Definition of Terms:
Disease - is defines as any abnormality in structure or function displayed by
living organisms through a specific or non-specific sign (symptoms).
Host - refers to the organisms who can get the disease
Pathogen - an organism causing disease to its host
Environment - the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant
lives or operates.
Susceptible - likely or liable to be influenced or harmed by a particular thing.
Resistance - the ability not to be affected by something, especially adversely.

The need for more and more food fish to feed a growing population gave rise to aquaculture.
Today, aquaculture yields have increased, with more harvests coming from farms in Asia.
In aquaculture, any one of three production systems may be used in growing the chosen
species. These are extensive, semi-intensive, or intensive production system. Choice of a system
depends on the desired density of animals to be farmed in a given area. In intensive system, fish are
farmed in high stocking density. High stocking density results in exposure of the animals to stress that
often leads to disease.
Disease outbreaks, in turn, cause production losses due to lower harvests or aquatic products
of poor quality.
1.1 Host, pathogen and environment interaction in the disease development in fish
and shellfish

As could be seen from the classical description of Snieszko in 1970, the incidence of disease is
due to the breakdown of the delicate balance between host, pathogen and environment. The host in
many cases is able to resist invasion of most of the pathogens if it is healthy and free from stress. In
many of the aquaculture systems, however, such a situation rarely exist, as there are a multitude of
variables that need to be kept under check for a balanced and optimum requirement of the cultured
species.

The aquatic environment by itself is highly dynamic and the body functions of fishes which are
poikilothermic are controlled by temperature and other water quality parameters. Fish has to
continuously adjust to the changing environmental parameters, else it leads to low productivity, reduced
weight gain, reduced feed conversion, decreased immunity, reduced natural disease resistance,
increase in infectious diseases, death and reduced profits for commercial fish farmer.

Irresponsible use of chemical disinfectants and antibiotics is also a potential environmental

hazard. In fish, stress is usually related to stocking density, environmental quality, handling or transport.
Additionally, intensive culture practices with poorly controlled feed use and waste production adversely
affect the environment. Variations in the environmental and biological parameters from the optimum
range introduce stress to the animals under culture, which has a direct bearing on their immune system.
In fish, stress response is initiated by adaptive changes due to the stimulation of hypothalamus-
pituitary-inter renal (HPI) axis and consequent production of corticosteroids. Although these stress
hormones help the animal in its effort to regain internal homeostasis, they significantly lower the
defence mechanisms due to their immune suppressive nature.
The development of disease in a particular system involves several factors: the farmed fish
(host), the disease causing organisms (pathogens) and the surroundings (environment).

For a disease situation to exist there should be a potential pathogens, a susceptible host, and
environmental condition that bring about either increased virulence of the pathogen, or decreased
resistance of the host.

Host - fish or any farmed aquatic animals. Can be either resistant or susceptible to a
given disease, Resistance or susceptibility of the host depends on age or size of the host organisms,
species, defense mechanisms employed and the health of the fish, including its nutritional state.

Pathogens - Agents if diseases or pathogens can be classified into physical, chemical and
biological agents.

Physical Agents - Extreme temperature changes and radiation, such

as ultraviolet rays from the sun.
Chemical Agents - can cause illness in aquatic organisms in a variety of
ways. Environmental contaminants, toxins, nutritional
imbalances and drug and chemical overdose are
classified as chemical agents of disease.
Biological Agents - They are the primary focus of attention when dealing
with infectious diseases. These agents include
viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. They are often
called infectious disease agents. They can
be present in the water or in sediment as part of the
 normal flora. Their presence and number are largely
influenced by environmental factors like temperature,
dissolved gases, pH, and availability of food.

The two major characteristics of an infectious agent are (a) capability for direct transmission
and (b) ability to multiply in the host tissue. The mode of their transmission is either (a) vertical or (b)
horizontal. In vertical transmission, infectious agents transfer from parent to offspring. The female or
male broodstock may be carriers of diseases, and transfer them to their offspring through the egg or
sperm. In horizontal transmission, infectious agents come in contact with the hosts through the water,
the feeds or through carrier animals that are in the environment.

Environment - The environment of cultured fish is composed of the water and its holding
system like tanks, ponds, cages, pens, etc. Stability of the environment, especially in the physico-
chemical parameter of the water brought about by the fish culture activity itself or by natural causes, will
determine the health of the fish. Fluctuations in temperature, pH, salinity or dissolved oxygen beyond
the optimum range for the host may lead to stress and disease. The key to successful fish culture is to
understand and manage the environment of the host organism. Understanding the role of the
environment in affecting the nature and cause of disease is essential to the prevention and control of
disease.

The human element is an important consideration in the farming of aquatic animals.

Aquaculture technicians and other personnel should have adequate knowledge and understanding of
the species they culture to assure the success of an aquaculture operation. Lack of experience or
insufficient personnel may lead to costly mistakes and poor yield. Farming strategies should consider
the crucial role of the people involved in every stage of production.

1.2 Role of Stress in disease development

Handling, overcrowding, malnutrition, or poor environmental conditions are stressful to

cultured fish. Stress is defined “as the sum of the physiological responses the fish makes to maintain or
regain its normal balance.” Response and adaptation to stress takes place in three phases (adapted
from Roberts
1978):
A. In the alarm stage, the fish attempts to escape from the problem.

B. If escape is not possible, the fish’s body attempts to react to the environmental
change. This is the adaptive stage, where the fish tries to adjust to the change and reach a new
equilibrium, both physiologically and behaviourally, to survive the new environmental conditions.
Although fish may successfully adapt to new and changing conditions, its growth, reproductive capacity
and disease immunity may not be maintained as in the previous level because, at this stage, the fish
deals with the stress as a priority. It is in this stage that disease problems are more likely to occur.
Extended exposure of fish to environmental deterioration disturbs its normal function and decreases its
chances of survival

C. If the environmental change is so great that the fish cannot adapt to it, then the
fish stress response finally reaches an exhaustion stage and the fish dies. Abrupt change in salinity, pH
or temperature, especially at levels beyond the animals’ tolerable range, cause significant stress in fish
and make them succumb to secondary infection due to opportunistic microorganisms. Exposure to
stress may also weaken the defense mechanism of fish.
1.3 Role of water quality in fish diseases
Maintenance of good water quality by making inlet water free from toxic substances and
pathogens is one of the integral parts of the health management in aquaculture. It has been advised
that the shrimp farmers maintain a reservoir pond for pre-treating the inlet water. Water quality
deterioration if noticed in a farm has to be attended immediately. Increasing aeration, reduction of
feeding rates, control of phytoplankton bloom and water flow management are the important steps that
are to be undertaken without any delay for abating low dissolved oxygen content. Water exchange
during periods of poor water quality also helps to regain the health status of the cultured fish.

Uneaten food, faecal waste, dead plant matter will increase the organic load. Addition of
calcium hydroxide or calcium carbonate enhances respiration of acidic soils. For optimum oxidation and
respiration of organic matter, soil moisture has to be between 12% to 20% and pH at 7.5 to 8.0. Low
or fluctuating pH, low alkaline or low hardness condition can be corrected by adding agricultural lime
in recirculation or flow through systems by dipping lime into the water or passing water through a bed of
oyster shells. Introduction of bio filter has been found to be very much essential in closed circulatory
system to keep up the water quality. It is also advisable to sterilise the incoming water to hatcheries for
fear of entry of potent viral pathogens, which could often be accomplished by the ozone treatment.

Water quality criteria for optimum fish health management of warm water and cold water
species of fish (mg/l, except pH)

Characteristic Cold water Warm water

O2 5– Saturation 5–Saturation
pH 6.5 – 8 6.5 – 9
Ammonia (un-ionised) 0 – 0.125 0 – 0.02
Calcium 4 – 160 10 – 160
CO2 0 –10 0 –15
H2S 0 – 0.002 0 – 0.002
Iron (total) 0 – 0.15 0 – 0.5
Manganese 0 – 0.01 0 – 0.01
Nitrate 0 – 3.0 0 – 3.0
Phosphorus 0.01 – 3.0 0.01 – 3.0
Zinc 0 – 0.05 0 – 0.05
Total Hardness (CaCO3 ) 10 – 400 10 – 200
Total alkalinity (CaCO3) 10 – 400 10 – 400
Nitrogen (gas saturation) <100% <100%
Total solids 0 –80 1. -500

A disease is the sum of the abnormal phenomena affecting the body displayed by a group of
living organisms in association with a specified common characteristic or set of characteristics by which
they differ from the norm of their species in such a way as to place them at a biological disadvantage.
The reason for the occurrence of disease outbreaks is varied, representing complex interactions
between the host and the disease-causing situation. Some bacteria are primary pathogens while others
are opportunistic, (saprophytic) water borne bacteria that would colonize the exposed tissue. The
opportunistic pathogen can cause a disease when the disease resistance of the fish reduces (in an
adverse physiological state) as in an environmental stress and an increase in number and/or virulence
of the pathogens.

A disease may even result from the synergistic interaction of two or more organisms. Within
fish farms, outbreaks of disease may begin suddenly, progress rapidly usually with high mortalities and
disappear with equal speed (acute diseases) or develop quite slowly with less severity but persist for
greater periods (chronic outbreaks).

According to Kinne (1980) four major groups of diseases may be identified in terms of
epizootiology. These include ‘sporadic disease’ which occur sporadically in comparatively few members
of a population; ‘epizootics’ which are large scale out breaks of communicable animal disease occurring
temporarily within limited geographical areas; 'panzootics', which occur in large areas; and enzootics
which persist or re-occur as low level out breaks in certain areas.

The importance of diseases in aquaculture is dependent on the type of culture system

employed. There are three basic types of culture systems in use in modern day fish or shrimp farming:

1) Intensive culture system, in which animals are raised in high density, intensively managed
tanks and ponds

2) Semi intensive systems in which fish or shrimps are raised in moderate densities in ponds
, cages or tanks with some management of the system practised and

3) Extensive systems where they are grown in low intensity ponds or pens in natural bodies of
water and where little or no management is practised.

Hatcheries are a part of the intensive or semi intensive culture systems. As the stocking density
in a culture system increases the possibility of disease occurs. Many bacteria causing diseases in
aquaculture are a part of their normal micro flora. They establish lethal influence as a result of other
primary conditions such as nutritional disorders, extreme environmental stress and wounds. In the
ponds when the waste materials like uneaten feed, and metabolites of animal increases, bacteria
multiply in large numbers. When the load of bacteria in the medium is high and the animals are
stressed due to any of the conditions, opportunistic bacteria can cause diseases.