Scanning Electron Microscopy of “Saddleback” Lesions Associated with Experimental Infections of Flavobacterium columnare in Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Siluriformes: Ictaluridae), and Zebrafish, Danio rerio (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae)

Abstract

Laboratory‐reared, specific pathogen‐free fingerling channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, and adult zebrafish, Danio rerio, were each separately exposed by immersion challenge to the etiological agent of “columnaris disease,”Flavobacterium columnare (Japanese Collection of Microorganisms 21327 strain). At 24‐h post‐immersion, fish exhibiting a “saddleback” lesion were fixed whole in 10% neutral buffered formalin. Skin samples approximately 5 mm2 were excised from both the margin and center of each saddleback lesion as well as from corresponding sites in control, non‐challenged, fish before being prepared routinely for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Skin samples from control channel catfish and zebrafish had uniform, contiguous epidermal cells with continuous or closely apposed cell margins and well‐defined microridges. Channel catfish skin lesion samples had margins typified by epidermal sloughing and lesion centers that exhibited a multitude of rod‐shaped bacterial cells, approximately 3–10 µm long × 0.3–0.5 µm wide, intermingled with cellular debris across a surface characterized by denuded, strongly ridged, or folded dermal connective tissue. Zebrafish skin lesion samples had a multitude of rod‐shaped bacterial cells and exhibited comparable ultrastructural changes but some lacked scales. These findings are the first published SEM observations of columnaris disease and saddleback lesions in channel catfish and zebrafish and thereby advance our understanding of the ultrastructural characteristics of acute‐stage saddleback lesions and columnaris disease pathogenesis.