Rockfish, Sebastes schlegelii (mean length 14.53 ± 1.14 cm and mean weight 38.36 ± 3.45 g), were exposed for 4 weeks with the different levels of ammonia in the concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/L at 19 and 24°C. The indicators of growth performance such as daily length gain, daily weight gain, condition factor, and hematosomatic index were significantly reduced by the ammonia exposure and high temperature. The ammonia exposure induced a significant decrease in hematological parameters, such as red blood cell (RBC) count, white blood cell (WBC) count, hemoglobin (Hb), and hematocrit (Ht), whose trend was more remarkable at 24°C. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were also notably decreased by the ammonia exposure. Blood ammonia concentration was considerably increased by the ammonia concentration exposure. In the serum components, the glucose, glutamic oxalate transaminase (GOT), and glutamic pyruvate transaminase (GPT) were substantially increased by the ammonia exposure, whereas total protein was significantly decreased. But, the calcium and magnesium were not considerably changed.

The effects of various water temperature treatments on the development of red sea bream iridovirus disease (RSIVD) in rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus challenged with iridovirus Sachun (IVS-1) were determined by measuring the mortality and the viral concentration in the spleen of infected fish. Experimental infections of rock bream with IVS-1 at water temperatures of 18, 21, and 25°C resulted in a cumulative mortality of 100%, but infections at 13°C resulted in 0% mortality, even after 45 d. The disease progressed more rapidly at higher water temperatures; at 25, 21, and 18°C, the mean numbers of days until death were 17, 20, and 30 d, respectively. When the water temperature for fish infected with iridovirus by intramuscular injection was shifted from 13 to 25°C, the cumulative mortality reached 100%, with rapid onset of the disease, independent of the time at which the temperature was shifted, i.e. 7, 14, or 30 d after injection at 13°C. Real-time PCR data revealed that the viral genome copy number in the spleen of rock bream maintained at 13°C increased with time, suggesting the occurrence of viral replication even at 13°C. In the reverse experiment, when the water temperature for fish that were infected at a higher temperature was shifted to 13°C, 3 or 7 d after injection at 25°C, the fish showed 100% cumulative mortality, although the mean number of days until death was higher than that observed for fish maintained at a constant temperature of 25°C. The viral DNA concentration in the spleen of rock bream that had been shifted down to 13°C, 3 or 7 d after injection at 25°C, was not suppressed, but increased and eventually reached levels sufficient to induce mortality at 13°C. However, the level of viral genome copy numbers in the spleen of dead fish at 25°C, regardless of whether those fish were held at a constant temperature of 25°C or shifted up from 13°C, appeared to be greater than the level found in the dead fish shifted down to 13°C after inoculation at 25°C. KEY WORDS: Temperature shift · Iridovirus · Oplegnathus fasciatus · QuantificationResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

The monitoring was performed to survey the mortalities and medications occurred in the inland aquaculture farms of olive flounder in South Korea from May to October, 2012. Both of the indirect inquiry for entire inland farms and the sample survey for selected farms were carried out. The aquatic organism disease inspectors, who have the national licenses for the diagnosis and prevention of aquatic organism diseases and have close relationship with the farms, investigated the rates and causes of mortalities according to the standard manual. The cumulative mortalities rate by the indirect inquiry on 565 farms, was calculated to 27.18%, and the mortalities rate by infectious diseases was 22.64%. Otherwise, the mortalities rate by sample survey on 60 farms was 25.50%, 19.33% of them were caused by infectious diseases. The high mortality rates were recorded by scuticociliatosis, non-infectious loss, streptococcosis, VHS, artificial eliminations, vibriosis and gliding bacterial disease. Streptococcosis and non-infectious mortality caused to serious loss in productivity and economy of the farms, because of their outbreaks in the flounder groups over 600 g. The monitoring of medications in the selected farms revealed that formalin for the treatment of external parasites, such as scuticociliates, was the most commonly used drugs in the farms. As the antibiotic medications, amoxicillin and florfenicol for streptococcosis, and oxytetracycline and neomycin expecting wide antibacterial spectrum, were frequently prescribed.

Immunotherapy represents a promising approach for improving current antibiotic treatments through the engagement of the host’s immune system. Latency-associated antigens have been included as components of multistage subunit tuberculosis vaccines. We first identified Rv2005c, a DosR regulon-encoded protein, as a seroreactive protein. In this study, we found that Rv2005c induced dendritic cell (DC) maturation and Th1 responses, and its expression by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) within macrophages was enhanced by treatment with CoCl2, a hypoxia-mimetic agent. T cells activated by Rv2005c-matured DCs induced antimycobacterial activity in macrophages under hypoxic conditions but not under normoxic conditions. However, Rv2005c alone did not exhibit any significant vaccine efficacy in our mouse model. The fusion of Rv2005c to the macrophage-activating protein Rv2882c resulted in significant activation of DCs and antimycobacterial activity in macrophages, which were enhanced under hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, the Rv2882c-Rv2005c fusion protein showed significant adjunctive immunotherapeutic effects and led to the generation of long-lasting, antigen-specific, multifunctional CD4+ T cells that coproduced TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-2 in the lungs of our established mouse model. Overall, these results provide a novel fusion protein with immunotherapeutic potential as adjunctive chemotherapy for tuberculosis.