A pathogenicity model for the agents of epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) in fish

Chemoautotrophic nocardioform (CAN) bacteria had been repeatedly isolated from fish with ulcerative disease syndromes (EUS) from the massive epizootics that had repeatedly occurred since 1988 in eastern India as the major or only pathogenic agent in the background of distinctive environmental and epizootic data. Since these isolates bear significant similarity to the human and rat leprosy bacilli, attempts had been made to demonstrate the pathogenicity of this fish pathogen in the "Swiss" strain of mice as a convenient model. The studies reveal that the fish CAN bacteria could produce pathogenic effects in mice similar to that of the rat leprosy bacillus.