Inter-Research > DAO > v148 > p19-27  
DAO
Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

via Mailchimp

DAO 148:19-27 (2022)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/dao03643

Fusarium oxysporum causes black gill disease in narrow-clawed crayfish Pontastacus leptodactylus

Yiğit Taştan1, İfakat Tülay Çağatay2,*

1Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Fisheries, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu 37150, Turkey
2Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Fisheries, Akdeniz University, Antalya 07070, Turkey
*Corresponding author:

ABSTRACT: Morphological and molecular analyses were carried out to determine the causative agent of black gill disease in narrow-clawed crayfish Pontastacus leptodactylus specimens collected from 6 lakes (Taşkısığı, Beyşehir, Karaidemir, Karataş, Manyas, and Gölhisar) in Turkey. Fungi were isolated from the tissues of crayfish displaying putative black gill disease symptoms. Morphological evaluation was conducted, and the isolates were determined to be similar to Fusarium oxysporum. Subsequent molecular cloning of the ITS region of nrDNA by PCR confirmed species identification; DNA sequences from all 6 isolates were 99% similar to those of F. oxysporum. An experimental infection trial was conducted in triplicate using 1 of the 6 isolates to fulfill Koch’s postulates. Three groups of crayfish were used: (1) wounded and contaminated (WC), (2) wounded and not contaminated (WNC), and (3) non-wounded and contaminated (NWC). On Day 3, one individual died in the WC group. Throughout the total 74 d monitoring period, no other mortality was recorded. On Day 14, all crayfish in the WC group showed blackened gills, whereas all crayfish in the NWC displayed partial blackening and all crayfish in the WNC group displayed normal gill coloration. F. oxysporum was re-isolated in pure culture from the WC and NWC groups; thus, the disease was confirmed. Our results indicated that F. oxysporum causes black gill disease in P. leptodactylus crayfish. Moreover, we demonstrated that F. oxysporum can also infect non-wounded crayfish.


KEY WORDS: Fusarium oxysporum · Black gill disease · Crayfish · Pontastacus leptodactylus


Full text in pdf format
Supplementary material
Cite this article as: Taştan Y, Çağatay IT (2022) Fusarium oxysporum causes black gill disease in narrow-clawed crayfish Pontastacus leptodactylus. Dis Aquat Org 148:19-27. https://doi.org/10.3354/dao03643

Export citation
Share:    Facebook - - linkedIn

 Previous article Next article