Journal of fish pathology (한국어병학회지)

The Korean Society of Fish Pathology (한국어병학회)
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Spraguea sp. (Microsporidia: Spraguidae) infection in yellow goosefish (Lophius litulon) in Korea

  • Han-Seul Cho (Department of Aquatic Life Medicine, Gangneung-Wonju National University) ;
  • Jae-Young Lee (Department of Aquatic Life Medicine, Gangneung-Wonju National University) ;
  • Jeong-Ho Kim (Department of Aquatic Life Medicine, Gangneung-Wonju National University)
  • Received : 2023.11.22
  • Accepted : 2023.12.05
  • Published : 2023.12.31
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Abstract

Yellow goosefish (Lophius litulon) is one of the important commercial fisheries target species in Korea, and commonly consumed as braised or stew. The microsporidian Spraguea is known to infect the nervous system of lophiid fish, forming numerous visible whitish xenomas. This parasite is commonly found in lophiid fish worldwide, but there is no information on the infection status of this parasite in Korea. We obtained commercially available chopped packs of lophiid fish from several fish markets and investigated their prevalence of infection. The isolated xenomas were crushed and purified as mature spore suspension. Microscopic observation and PCR were conducted to visualize and identify them. The host fish was also identified by DNA bar cording analysis. All the specimens were heavily infected and microscopic observation with Giemsa or Chromotrope 2R stain revealed tiny oval shapes of typical microsporidian spores. PCR analysis targeting the partial SSU rDNA showed that our specimen belongs to the genus Spraguea clade. But clear identification at the species level was not possible, due to the insufficient information of gene sequences available in GenBank. In addition, all of our host fish specimen was identified as yellow goosefish. This is the first report of a microsporidian parasite Spraguea infection in yellow goosefish from Korea.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We appreciate Ki-Won Lee and Ji-Hyeon Lee in the same laboratory for their technical assistance during the experiment.

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