Histopathology of Protistan and Myxozoan Infections in Fishes

Dyková I., Lom J. Although histopathology is essential for the assessment of pathogenicity of parasites, there has been thus far no comprehensive treatise dealing with tissue manifestations of pathogenicity of fish-infecting protists and myxozoans. This is the first publication devoted entirely to histopathology of fish infections caused by agents mentioned above. It sums up the data collected over many years of research and offers a comprehensive pictorial representation of action of eukaryotic microorganisms formerly known as protozoa upon their fish hosts.

Separate groups of parasites are introduced by a brief characterisation, including photographs representing their typical species as seen in fresh preparations for comparison with their appearance in stained tissue sections. The variability of lesions elicited by protists and myxozoans in fish tissues and organs is documented in a series of full-page plates of black and white and colour photographs. In addition to portraying the tissue changes, the atlas yields an insight into defence reactions towards such pathogens and may also expand the existing knowledge on the parasites in question. A short survey of fish histology and examples of basic pathological processes are also supplied to provide a handy comparison with tissue alterations described in the main part of the publication.

The contents of Atlas would be of importance for ichthyopathologists, veterinarians engaged in the field of diagnostics of fish diseases, and may be of interest also for biologists interested in fundamental research.