Pathology

Objective: To investigate the nature, distribution and etiology (causation) of fish diseases and provide diagnostic support for Commonwealth Pfiesteria monitoring and VIMS research programs.

Standard biomedical methods and approaches to disease diagnosis such as histopathology and bacteriology/mycology are applied to regional fish health problems. For pathological evaluations, diseased tissues are processed by routine and special methods for paraffin histology and subsequent microscopical analysis by a pathologist.

For determinations of infectious disease agents, affected fish tissues are processed by routine methods for bacterial/mycotic isolation, culture, and identification.

Resulting data provide scientific basis for ascribing causation to specific fish diseases in Chesapeake Bay.