Bacillary Necrosis, a Disease of Larval and Juvenile Bivalve Mollusks I. Etiology and Epizootiology

Abstract

Tubiash, Haskell S. (U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Milford, Conn.), Paul E. Chanley, and Einar Leifson . Bacillary necrosis, a disease of larval and juvenile bivalve mollusks. I. Etiology and epizootiology. J. Bacteriol. 90: 1036–1044. 1965.—Lethal bacterial infections of a variety of hatchery-spawned bivalve mollusk larvae and juveniles have been studied. The symptoms of the disease and the course of the infection are described. Four biotypes and five antigenic types of bacteria, pathogenic for the larvae of five species of bivalve mollusks, were isolated and described in some detail. All are gram-negative motile rods. Comparative studies were made of a fairly large number of similar bacteria isolated from presumably normal marine fauna. None of these was pathogenic for the bivalve larvae nor did they have antigens in common with the pathogenic group. The four biotypes had a number of characteristics in common that rarely were present in other cultures from marine fauna. Several antibiotic preparations proved to be of value in the treatment and control of the infection.