• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.1573-1580
• /
• 2016

The disease occurred in cultured eel (Anguilla japonica) in a recirculatory culture system without any separated filtration apparatus. As the pond had a high level of nitrite with $60mg/{\ell}$, 1% NaCl was added to reduce nitrite toxicity to eel. The first outbreak was observed a week after the NaCl treatment and continued for 10 days. Accumulated mortality was about 0.2-0.5%. Affected fish ranged from 150-350 g were usually anorexic and exhibited yellow colour in the skin of the abdominal region and at the base of pectoral fins, as well as in the eyes. In a few individuals with severe symptoms, the lateral skin was also yellowish. The spleen, kidney, muscle and gall bladder were yellowish and the liver was pale-yellow colour but green on the posterior part. The gall bladder was shrunken without bile. Some abnormal erythrocytes such as "tear drop" cells (dacrocyte) were observed in peripheral blood smears stained with May-Grunwald Giemsa. Hematocrit values and hemoglobin contents in the jaundiced eel were significantly lower compared with apparently heathy eel. Severe haemosiderosis accompanied by erythrophagocytosis was found in the kidney and spleen. Haemosiderin deposits were observed in macrophages of the haematopoietic tissue of the kidney and in the splenocytes. But no significant alterations were found in the hepatic cells. In this study we report the first outbreak of jaundice in cultured eel in Korea. Pathological and hematological investigations suggested that severe hemolysis may resulted in jaundice in eel although the cause of hemolytic jaundice was not identified in this study.