Immunohistochemical and PCR studies of wild fish for Tetracapsula bryosalmonae (PKX), the causative organism of proliferative kidney disease

• Published in: Journal of Fish Diseases
• Main Authors: Morris, D J, Adams, A, Feist, S W, McGeorge, J, Richards, R H
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2000
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2761.2000.00227.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-2761.2000.00227.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-2761.2000.00227.x

Tetracapsula bryosalmonae , previously referred to as PKX, causes proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in salmonids and is an economically important myxozoan pathogen in salmonid culture. A variety of molecular and immunological tools have been developed to detect the parasite. To determine the specificity of four monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) raised against T. bryosalmonae , archive material of fish infected with various myxosporean species was obtained and immunostained. Wild fish were also collected from enzootic waters and examined for T. bryosalmonae infection using immunohistochemistry and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Three of the MAb probes appear to be specific for T. bryosalmonae while only two of the five sets of primers tested appeared to specifically amplify T. bryosalmonae DNA. The results of the immunostaining and the PCR demonstrate that T. bryosalmonae occurs in the tubules of grayling Thymallus thymallus L., brown trout, Salmo trutta L. and Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L. outside of the PKD season (June‐September) in the UK. This confirms the results of previous studies that these species are the preferred fish hosts for the parasite in the UK.