Glugeosis is a marine and freshwater
parasitic disease and is well documented in Japanese aquaculture and reported
outbreaks in North America. The main causative agent of glugeosis disease is
microsporidian parasites in the Glugea
genus (Koesharyani et al 2005).
In 1998, a private hatchery in Indonesia
culturing juvenile barramundi found that in the early stages of infection, fish
exhibited lethargic swimming and a disinterest in food (Koesharyani et al
2005). The longer a fish goes infected, the easier it is to externally diagnose,
with heavily infected fish exhibiting a cripplingly swollen abdomen, the cause
of which are white cysts ranging in diameter from 0.5-1.5 mm, growing inside
the fish (Zafran et al 1998). If left untreated, the cysts may multiply until
the abdomen bursts or the fish starves to death (Zafran et al 1998).
An effective treatment for glugeosis
disease is administering copper sulfate into the water body. Prevention of
glugeosis in an aquaculture setting is to reduce the stocking density and to
maintain good water quality, however research shows that infections have
occurred mostly due to live shrimp being fed to fish. This suggests oral
transmission of the parasite (Koesharyani et al), therefore decent food
supervision should decrease infection rates.
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| numerous white cysts in the abdomen of fish infected with glugeosis |
References:
Koesharyani, I. Roza, D. Mahardika, K.
Johnny, F. Zafran, A. Yuasa, K 2005, ‘Manual for Fish Disease Diagnosis – II’,
‘Japan International Cooperation Agency’
Zafran, A. Rosa, D. Koesharyani, I. Johnny,
F. Youssa, K 1998, ‘Manual for Fish Diseases Diagnosis’, ‘Japan International
Cooperation Agency’
