This paper presents data from field studies and exposure experiments and the possible association of limno‐ and physicochemical parameters with outbreaks of proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in rainbow and brown trout. The investigations were carried out at Singold Brook in southern Germany. Exposure experiments and sampling of wild fish were performed in Singold at least twice a year in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2000. Both wild fish collected from the specific sites and experimentally exposed rainbow trout were investigated histologically for the occurrence of PKD. At the time of sampling, various water parameters at the respective river sites were measured. The results indicate strongly the existence of a correlation between organic pollution of water, the presence of Bryozoa and the outbreak of PKD.

Sphaerospora epinepheli n. sp. is described from grouper, Epinephelus malabaricus, in cage-cultured and wild fish collected from both coastal lines of southern Thailand. Subspherical to spherical spores and mono- or disporous pseudoplasmodia were observed in the lumen of kidney tubules. Pseudoplasmodia were round to elongate, size range 15.6-22.9 microns (length) x 8.4-21.6 microns (width). Spores were 7.8-10.0 microns (length) x 12.3-14.5 microns (thickness), and 7.0-9.5 microns (width) with two spherical polar capsules of equal size measuring 2.9-4.4 microns in diameter and containing polar filaments with six or seven windings. Two uninucleate sporoplasms showed iodine vacuoles. Blood stages, similar to C-blood protozoans observed from freshwater fish in Europe, were found from peripheral blood smears of grouper. Ultrastructural studies of blood stages showed a similar structure to unidentified mobile protozoans from the blood of carp. Electron dense bodies were observed in the cytoplasm of the primary cell blood stages. Infected proximal-tubular epithelial cells showed highly vacuolated cytoplasm and pycnotic nuclei.

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