Hematological Analysis and Non-specific Immune Responses of Emaciated Olive Flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus in Korea

Abstract

In this study, a research was conducted on hematological analyses and comparisons of the changes in non-specific immune response with regards to emaciated and non-emaciated fishes that are causing severe damages to olive flounder aquafarms in Jeju. First, the researcher selected a sample of raised olive flounder that exhibited typical symptoms of emaciation in three aquafarms in Jeju for experimental use, and then selected healthy-looking olive flounder from one aquafarm that had no past record of emaciation disease, and checked for possibilities of infection through PCR. Averagely, in the hematological analysis shows that haematocrit (Ht), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), and glucose (GLU), emaciated fish groups (Farm A, B, and C) displayed higher experimental values than control group, and in the glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), total cholesterol (Tchol), and total protein (TP), exhibited lower experimental values than control group. As a result of measuring lysozyme, nitro-blue-tetrazolium (NBT) and myeloperoxidase (MPO), which are markers for non-specific immune responses, lower experimental values were observed in the three experiments. Thus, it can be concluded that a high mortality rate was exhibited due to stress and internal organ damages that resulted from the destruction of the primary defense mechanism that protects fishes from getting infected by emaciation agents.