A bacterial disease of perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) in an alpine lake: isolation and preliminary study of the causative organism.

An epizootic among perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) occurred during the summer and fall of 1979 in an alpine lake (Lake Annecy, Haute-Savoie) in France. Hemorrhagic and ulcerative clinical signs were associated with the height of the mortality. A Gram-negative, non-motile, slow-growing bacterium was isolated from skin lesions is diseased fish. Aeromonas hydrophila often was present. Since the nonmotile bacterium was suspected to be the etiological agent, its characteristics and pathogenicity were determined. The bacterium was pathogenic to perch, possibly pathogenic to rainbow trout, and non-pathogenic to carp. It could be reisolated from infected fish, but its physiologic and biochemical properties have not been assessed to determine the taxonomic position.