Pathogenesis of Enteric Septicemia of Channel Catfish,Caused by Edwardsiella ictaluri: Bacteriologic and Light and Electron Microscopic Findings

Abstract

To clarify early events in the pathogenesis of enteric septicemia of catfish, 140 channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus (8–10 months old) were each infected with approximately 1.0 × 10⁹ colony-forming units of Edwardsiella ictaluri by intragastric intubation. Fish were sacrificed at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h postinfection (PI). Multiple tissue samples at all scheduled sampling times were evaluated by gross observation, light and electron microscopy, and immunohistochemical methods. In addition, at each sampling time, stomach, intestine, trunk kidney, and liver were cultured to quantitate bacteria. Trunk kidney cultures were positive by 0.25 h PI, indicating rapid transmucosal passage. In the intestine, E. ictaluri was seen in contact with the brush border at 0.5 h PI. Also at 0.5 h PI, dilated basilar cells with large intracytoplasmic inclusions were observed adjacent to the basement membrane. From 1 to 3 h PI, occasional necrotic enterocytes were seen on tips of intestinal folds. Proprial leukocytes were rare before 24 h PI but common thereafter. Immunoelectron microscopy showed E. ictaluri in vacuoles within phagocytes as early as 24 h PI in the intestinal mucosa. In other tissues, earliest observed microscopic lesions (48 h PI) consisted of bacteria within vacuoles of phagocytic cells contained within blood vessels. Bacteria were also seen within degenerate vacuoles in enterocytes and hepatocytes at 72, 96, and 120 h PI. This study confirms that E. ictaluri can invade channel catfish within 0.25 h PI by crossing the intestinal mucosa and suggests that the bacterium may have invasion and survival strategies similar to those of other enteroinvasive members of the Enterobacteriaceae.