Investigation of the Pathobiology of-Septicemia in Largemouth Bass.

Abstract

septicemia is a significant threat to aquaculture, causing substantial production and economic losses. The causative bacteriuminfects multiple fish species of aquaculture relevance. This study investigated the pathogenicity of catfish-derivedin largemouth bass () fingerlings. The experimental infection of largemouth bass using genotypically distinctisolates resulted in significant fish mortality independent of the isolate genotypes. A specific correlation between discretegenotypes and fish mortalities was not identified. The histopathological assessment of tissues from infected fish revealed inflammatory lesions characteristic of bacterial septicemia. This study provides insights into the pathogenesis of heterologousisolates in largemouth bass fingerlings, which could be crucial in developing effective pathogen-targeted management strategies to combat a deadly disease.