Experimental infection and detection of Aphanomyces invadans in European catfish, rainbow trout and European eel.

European catfish Silurus glanis, European eel Anguilla anguilla and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were challenged by intramuscular injection of zoospores of Aphanomyces invadans, the oomycete associated with epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS). The tropical three-spot gourami Trichogaster trichopterus is known to be highly susceptible and was used as a positive control. European catfish were highly susceptible and rainbow trout had moderate to low susceptibility, whereas eels appeared largely unaffected. Inflammatory host response in European catfish deviated from the effects seen in most other susceptible fish species and was characterised by a more loosely arranged accumulation of macrophages, small numbers of lymphocytes and multinucleated giant cells without occurrence of EUS-characteristic mycotic granulomas. Semi-nested and single round PCR assays were developed for this study to detect A. invadans DNA in clinical samples of experimentally infected fish. The detection limit of the assays equals 1 genomic unit. Specificity was examined by testing the DNA of various oomycetes, other relevant pathogens and commensals as well as host DNA. The single round assay used was fully specific, whereas cross-reaction with the closely related Aphanomyces frigidophilus was observed using the semi-nested assay. Analysis of samples by PCR allowed detection prior to detectable histopathological lesions. Two other published PCR protocols were compared to the PCR protocols presented here.

Detection of Aphanomyces astaci in North American crayfish by polymerase chain reaction.

We present a PCR based method to detect Aphanomyces astaci in North American crayfish. Primers were designed to specifically amplify parts of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and the 5.8 rRNA gene of A. astaci. A single round and a semi-nested assay were tested for their sensitivity and specificity. Specificity of the PCR assays was tested against several closely related Aphanomyces species, other Oomycetes and some non-A. astaci DNA that might be found in or on crayfish. The single round assay was fully specific against all DNA tested. In the semi-nested assay, cross-reaction was seen when the equivalent of 40,000 or more genomic units of A. invadans or A. frigidophilus were entered into the PCR reaction. The lower detection limit of both assays lies around 1 genomic unit of A. astaci. Investigation of various parts of the exoskeleton of 3 North American crayfish species revealed that for O. limosus and P. leniusculus the telson and soft abdominal cuticle yielded a positive PCR reaction most frequently. For the third species, Procambarus clarkii, only 1 individual tested positive, so no conclusion as to preferred infestation site(s) could be drawn.