Abstract
Hemorrhagic disease occurred in cultured fingerlings of snakehead Channa striata in Viet Nam. Bacteria isolated from affected fish were identified as Aeromonus hydrophila. One of the isolates from lesions of a moribund cultured snakehead fingerling was subjected to a pathogenicity test to snakehead fingerling using intraperitoneal injection. Inoculation with the bacterium caused clinical signs in challenged fingerlings similar to those observed in naturally affected fish. Resulting mortality indicated an LD50 of 1.2 × 105 CFU/fish. Molecular characterization demonstrated that the same bacterium was re-isolated from the experimentally infected fish. This is the first report of A. hydrophila infection in snakehead in Viet Nam.
