BACTERIAL DISEASES OF CULTURED MARINE FISH IN JAPAN

Many species of pathogenic bacteria have been reported from marine fis hes in Japan: Aeromonas salmonicida (atypical), clamydia like organism s (epitheliocystis organisms), Edwardsiella tarda, Flexibacter maritim us, Lactococcus garvieae (syn. Enterococcus seriolicida), Mycobacteriu m sp., Nocardia seriolae (syn. N. kampachi), Photobacterium damsela su bsp. piscicida (syn. Pasteurella piscicida), Pseudomonas anguillisepti ca, Pseudomonas putida, Renibacterium salmoninarum (in maricultured sa lmonids), Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus equisimilis, Strep tococcus iniae, Vibrio alginolyticus, Listonella anguillarum (syn. Vib rio anguillarum), Vibrio ichthyoenteri, Vibrio ordalii, Vibrio trachur i and some other minor or unknown species. These bacteria usually give damages to some limited fish species, however, most of them have been found to be distributed in other cultured and wild fish species which will be possible hosts or carriers of pathogens. Drug resistance, det erioration of water around farms, and spread of pathogens by transport ing seedling fish are the major problems for the control of disease in Japanese mariculture.