JOD investigations by Rutgers and SUNY, Stony Brook, 1991-1994:Epizootiology, histopathology and bacteriology

摘要

In 1988, a producer in Maine sent a batch of juvenile oysters to the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory (HSRL) for pathological examination. The oysters had the classical symptoms of what would become known as Juvenile Oyster Disease (JOD)--the organic deposit on the inner shell--but no histologically detectable pathogen. Although this may have been the first recorded outbreak of JOD, concerted investigations of the disease did not begin until 1991, after extensive juvenile oyster mortalities occurred on Long Island, New York. That year, studies were conducted by HSRL and SUNY Stony Brook and by Battelle Ocean Sciences, at the Frank M. Flower Co. at Oyster Bay, NY, on the north shore of Long Island. They documented 1) the timing and extent of mortalities; 2) that they occurred at temperatures greater than or equal to 21-22 degree C; 3) that reducing densities also reduced mortalities; and 4) that lesions, but no obvious pathogen, were detectable in the gills and mantle of affected oysters by either light or electron microscopy, although bacteria were observed on and within the deposit. This study also recorded a link between phytoplankton blooms and the occurrence of lesions.