Abstract
The early entry of the fish pathogen Flavobacterium columnare and enhancement by abrasion was studied in channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque), using the polymerase chain reaction and a species‐specific primer set for a bacterial 16S rRNA gene product. Evaluations were conducted following an abrasion bath immersion challenge with F. columnare . Abrasion, a practice which has historically been used prior to bacterial challenge, had significant effects on the early entry of the pathogen and on cumulative percent survival (CPS). The FvpF1–FvpR1 primer set was useful in detecting the early entry of F. columnare in mucus, skin, gill, blood, liver and trunk kidney tissues in both abraded and unabraded fish following immersion challenge at 29 ± 2 °C. Bacteria were detected earlier in all tissues in abraded fish, except in the trunk kidney. These differences were not significant, except in the case of blood. Mucus, skin and gill tissues were positive for F. columnare earliest regardless of treatment (after 5 min in abraded fish and after 15 min in unabraded fish). CPS following challenge with F. columnare was significantly affected by abrasion, which supports the use of abrasion for the F. columnare challenge model for channel catfish.