The bluestripe snapper, or taape, was introduced into Hawaii in the 1950s and has since become very abundant throughout the archipelago. As part of a health survey of reef fish in Hawaii, we necropsied 120 taape collected from various coastal areas south of Oahu and examined fish histology for extraintestinal organisms. Forty-seven percent of taape were infected with an apicomplexan protozoan compatible with a coccidian. Infection was evident mainly in the spleen and, less commonly, the kidney. Prevalence of this coccidian increased with size of fish, and we saw no significant pathology associated with the organism. Twenty-six percent of taape were also infected with an epitheliocystis-like organism that occurred mainly in the kidney and, less commonly, the spleen. In contrast to the coccidian, fish mounted a notable inflammatory response to the epitheliocystis-like organism, and this inflammation appeared to increase in severity with age. Prevalence of the epitheliocystis-like organism infection increased with age, but infection was not seen in fish greater than 26.5 cm fork length. The high prevalence of coccidial infection in introduced taape prompts the concern that these organisms, along with the epitheliocystis-like organism, have the potential to be transmitted to native reef fish. Given the impact of other introduced microbial organisms on native Hawaiian fauna, there is a clear need to assess whether protozoa and bacteria are endemic to Hawaii, and whether they negatively impact native reef fish that closely associate with taape.

We describe a new myxozoan, Henneguya akule n. sp., infecting the carangid fish Selar crumenophthalmus in Hawaii. Spores were found only in the aortic bulb, characterized by elliptical capsule with 2 tails, and pyriform polar capsules that angled toward the anterior end of the spore. Polar filaments had 3-4 coils. Parasites were present in apparently healthy fishes and caused no evident gross pathology. On microscopy, parasites evinced a mild inflammatory response in the host characterized by accumulations of eosinophilic fibrillar material around spores and a mononuclear infiltrate in the adventitia of the bulbus arteriosus. Overall prevalence was 20%, and prevalence between 2001 and 2006 ranged from 12 to 27%, but did not differ significantly between years. In contrast, prevalence of infection was highest in south-central Oahu. There was no relationship between infection status and body condition or gender of fish, and infection was absent in the smallest and largest fishes. Phylogenetically, H. akule n. sp. is most closely related to other Henneguya species infecting the heart of marine fishes based on ribosomal DNA analysis. This is the first documentation of a myxozoan parasite in marine fishes from Hawaii.

Infection with molluscum contagiosum virus, a poxvirus, normally has a typical clinical presentation; therefore, laboratory confirmation is infrequently sought and the virus is rarely isolated in culture. As reported herein, viral culture of specimens from atypical lesions may produce an abortive infection in limited cell lines and a cytopathic effect suggestive of herpes simplex virus. CASE REPORTAn 18-year-old woman presented to her health care provider with a 1-month history of a rash in the pubic area. The lesions were not painful and the patient had no history of similar dermatological problems. She stated that her husband had a similar lesion on his upper inner thigh. No unusual travel, exposure, or social history was reported. Upon examination, the patient had a single, nontender lesion in the mons area that had a vesicular herpetic appearance and multiple lesions in the groin area resembling folliculitis.The provider suspected herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection and submitted a swab specimen collected from the lesion and placed in viral transport medium (Microtest M4-RT; Remel, Lenexa, KS) to the medical center virology laboratory for culture. A 750-l aliquot of the specimen was removed from the viral transport medium and placed in a separate tube. An antimicrobic suspension of penicillin (1,000 U/ml), streptomycin (1,000 g/ml), and amphotericin B (Fungizone [2.5 g/ml]; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) was prepared. Two hundred microliters of the antimicrobic solution was added to the 750-l aliquot of specimen, and the mixture was centrifuged for 10 min at 2,300 rpm (900 ϫ g). Two-hundred-microliter aliquots of the processed specimen were inoculated into MRC-5 (Diagnostic Hybrids, Inc., Athens, OH) and A549 (Diagnostic Hybrids, Inc., Athens, OH) tube cultures and incubated at 36°C. Discrete foci of ballooning or rounding fibroblasts suggestive of HSV were observed at 24 h in the MRC-5 cells (Fig. 1); however, no cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed in the A549 cells. Attempts to pass the observed CPE to a subsequent tube of MRC-5 cells from the primary culture were unsuccessful, which might indicate specimen toxicity; however, no such effects were observed in A549 cells. The abortive CPE, which resembled the CPE of HSV, resulted in the death of the MRC-5 cells and was reproduced twice more using the original specimen in MRC-5 cells, while inoculated A549 cells were unaffected.Cells from the primary MRC-5 cell culture exhibiting a CPE were trypsinized and fixed to slides for examination by fluorescent-antibody (FA) testing by two separate laboratories