Production of salmonid amoebic gill disease by exposure to <i>Paramoeba</i> sp. harvested from the gills of infected fish

Abstract

Atlantic salmon, S almo salar L., were exposed to different concentrations of Paramoeba sp. The lowest concentration which induced amoebic gill disease (AGD) was 230 Paramoeba sp. L –1 and the severity of infection increased with increasing concentration. The concentration of Paramoeba sp. positively correlated with the number of gill lesions ( R 2 &gt; 0.7). This study provides evidence that Paramoeba sp. is the causative agent of AGD and describes an experimental model that enables the severity of the induced disease to be controlled.