Bacterial Fish Pathogens

Book excerpt: Expanded and updated, this second edition considers fish diseases in the context of the fish's environment, and includes coverage of many aspects of microbiology. The authors provide information on the structure of fish in order to help familiarize readers with general fish anatomy. All the bacterial taxa which have been reported as fish pathogens are included, and the material is subdivided for easy reference into sections which deal with characteristics of the diseases, isolation methods, characterization of the pathogens, diagnosis, epizootilogy, pathogenicity mechanisms and control. Written by bacteriologists for microbiologists, the book tabulates the identification procedures, and gives characteristics of pathogens, the diseases and their control. As farmed fish are of greater commercial importance, and the consequences of losses attributable to bacterial fish pathogens therefore of greater economic consequence, the authors concentrate on these rather than on wild stocks.