Abstract
Though ulcer disease of goldfish has been thought to be of an infectious nature, the etiological agent has not yet been isolated in Japan. Intradermal inoculation of skin materials taken from affected skin areas of diseased goldfish can induce ulcerative lesions at the site of inoculation, but the progress of the lesions is mostly somewhat different from that observed in natural outbreaks.
In this study an attempt was made to develop the method for experimentally inducing the same skin lesions as those in naturally occurred ulcer disease. A scale was pulled out from a congested part surrounding an ulcerative lesion and immediately inserted beneath a scale of a healthy fish. The scale inserted was removed after various periods of time.
As a result ulcer lesions were produced in 70 to 100 percent of the inoculated fish and the external appearance and the progress of the lesions were the same as those in naturally diseased fish. One minute insertion was satisfactory. This method may be useful for the study of ulcer disease, in particular of its treatment.
