‘Soft tunic syndrome’ causes mass mortality in the edible ascidian Halocynthia roretzi in Korean and Japanese aquaculture. In histopathological comparison, there were no specific differences between diseased specimens from Korea and Japan, indicating that soft tunic syndrome occurring in Korea and Japan is the same disease. No bacterial or protozoan cells were microscopically detected in either healthy or diseased tunics sugge...

In Japan and Korea, outbreaks of scuticociliatosis have frequently occurred in Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus . Morphological observations and small subunit rRNA gene sequences have shown that the causative agent of scuticociliatosis in the flounder is Miamiensis avidus (syn. Philasterides dicentrarchi ). In this study, we elucidated the antigenic differences between six Japanese M. avidus isolates as an initial ste...

Olive flounder artificially infected with lymphocystis disease virus (LCDV) were reared at 10, 20 and 30 °C for 60 days, to compare LCD‐incidence. In the fish reared at 20 °C, lymphocystis cells appeared on the skin and fins at 35 days post‐challenge, and the cumulative LCD‐incidence was 80% at 60 days. High levels of LCDV, with a mean polymerase chain reaction (PCR) titre of 10 6 PCR‐U mg −1 tissue, were detected in the fins...

Kuchijirosho is a fatal disease of commercially cultured fugu, Takifugu rubripes . The transmissible nature of kuchijirosho strongly suggests that an infectious pathogen is the causative agent. Because it is filtrable, the agent is thought to be a virus; however, it has not yet been identified. The lack of a permissive cell line for the putative kuchijirosho‐causing agent (KCA) has hindered research on the identification of th...

Turbot iridovirus (TBIV), a member of the genus Megalocytivirus in the family Iridoviridae, was isolated from diseased turbot, Psetta maximus (L.), in Korea in 2003. In this study, experimental infection of turbot, Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus (Temminck & Schlegel), and rock bream, Oplegnathus fasciatus (Temminck & Schlegel), with TBIV was performed to evaluate the viral susceptibility of these fish species. After...