Fish Diseases and Management

2.2.16 Intestine

Intestine is the area where the absorption of digested materials takes place . Small finger like projections found in intestine known as villi helps to increase the absorptive surface area of the intestine. It is covered by a layer of membrane known as intestinal epithelium. Rodlet cells are frequently seen in the lining of the intestine.

Sloughing of gut mucosa into lumen to give the appearance of  copious catarrhal exudates or apoptotic digestion of individual epithelial cells is commonly reported in fishes in case of exposure to toxins of bacterial, viral or chemical origin.

In intensive culture conditions protozoan diseases such as coccidiosis or hexamitiasis, nematode or acanthocephalan infection may cause severe necrotic damage and haemorrhage are seen  as a result of the excess of the thorns of the parasite’s head.

Mycobacterium infection may cause granuloma formation with small whitish nodules extending along the viscera of the intestine resembling that of Glugea infection of the intestine.

Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus