fish TB

Serra

New member
Is anyone in this club able and willing to do a necropsy on a fish and have the equipment available to do an acid stain? I want to check for Mycobacterium marinum.
 
Good luck. I would love to know if anyone has the ability to do this. This would be opportunity for many of us to learn something. Serra, I'll keep an eye out for anyone that might be able to help (though it might be too late since it's been 4 days).
 
We have a great relationship with the folks at the Aquarium in Jenks - I'm sure they would be able to help you out.
 
Thanks you two. I have contacted a grad student that is here studying OK pup fish and discussed the fish with him. The following is what he told me:

Fish TB is in all tanks but a fish may actually die of the disease if the tank is stressed by over crowding and poor water conditions or old age. This fish was a freshwater Boesmani rainbow that was well over 5 years old.

I euthanized the fish but I have it frozen just in case I got a response. No others in the tank are sick at this time although most of the fish in there are approaching the same age.

His tales of 2 friends who got TB from tanks did make me think about using long gloves. I am asking around at the other club also. I think there are some folks there that can help. Not sure if the freezing will interfere with the tests...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8090241#post8090241 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Serra
His tales of 2 friends who got TB from tanks did make me think about using long gloves. I am asking around at the other club also. I think there are some folks there that can help. Not sure if the freezing will interfere with the tests...
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You can't get TB from a fish tank. You can get a skin infection caused by M. marinum, but that isn't TB in any way, shape or form.

T
 
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The skin infection has caused 2 of my friends to undergo a 6 month round of antibiotics - it was diagnosed as a bacterial infection.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8090241#post8090241 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Serra
I euthanized the fish but I have it frozen just in case I got a response. ... Not sure if the freezing will interfere with the tests...

Freezing will often screw up testing. Refrigeration is recommended. This is true of any critter you may want tested.
 
The easiest way for most to figure out if their fish died of an M. marinum infection would be to dissect the fish and look for characteristic nodules on the internal organs. An acid-fact stain isn't going to necessarily tell you anything. You can also perform PCR-based diagnostics. However, both the staining and PCRs are only useful in diagnosing the causitive agents of the lesions themselves. If the lesions are lacking, it is unlikely the fish died of M. marinus.

As for wearing gloves, if you are paranoid about it, I suppose you might as well. But given how rare the infection is, and the fact that you are as likely to get it from a swimming pool or a lake, it is pretty unnecessary. Mycobacterial infections are also very, very slow in progression, so what you saw in those pictures took many months to occur. Given that we now all recognize the issue, if you have a persistent infection like those, inform you physician of the risks of the hobby and it will be diagnosed well before it ever gets to those stages.

T
 
As we have just been reminded of in a big way, in life, things happen. While picking basil from my garden last week, I looked down and there was a large black widow spider about an inch from my toe. Like eeksville! I ran in and googled it to make sure that was what it was. Right next to the pic of the widow was a pic of a missing big toe....

I will dissect and look for nodules.
 
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