Since 1997, mass mortality of the abalone Haliotis tuberculata L. has occurred in the natural environment along the French coast. The outbreak of disease started on the south coast of Brittany near Concarneau in 1997, then spread to the north of Brittany (in 1998) and the west coast of Normandy (Golfe de St. Malo in 1999). Between 60 and 80% of the abalone died. In 1999, mortality also affected a land-based abalone farm in Normandy during the summer. At this farm, a Vibrio sp. was isolated in abundance from abalone that had just died. The disease was experimentally reproduced by inoculation or by introducing the pathogen into the surrounding water. This vibrio, identified by genotypic and phenotypic characters, is related to V. carchariae. It is similar to the V. carchariae, responsible for mortality in the Japanese abalone Sulculus diversicolor supratexta, but some phenotypic characters differentiate both strains. In 2000, healthy abalone placed in 2 sites on the north and south coasts of Brittany died, and the pathogen V. carchariae could be isolated from dead individuals, demonstrating that the pathogen was probably the cause of the abalone disease that has been occurring since 1997 in Brittany.
KEY WORDS: Haliotis tuberculata · Vibrio carchariae · Bacterial epizootic · Pathogenicity
Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherDis Aquat Org 50: [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] 2002 ity reached 85% by the end of September (Fig. 2). Apart from some occurrences of white pustules on the foot, no other signs, nor any abnormal behaviour were apparent before death.Numerous diseases affecting abalone have been described (Bower 2000). A parasite, Perkinsus olseni, infects several Australian abalone species and is the only agent recognized as a serious pathogen for Haliotis spp. by the Office International des Epizooties (2001) 1 (Lester 1981). However, in 1983 bacteria, especially Vibrio spp. were already suspected to infect abalone juveniles (Elston & Lockwood 1983). More recently Li et al. (1998) isolated V. fluvialis II, which caused pustule formation and mortality in the abalone H. discus hannai Dalian in China. V. carchariae is responsible for disease and mortalities among Japanese abalone, Sulculus diversicolor supratexta (Nishimori et al. 1998), and a Rickettsia-like prokaryote is suspected to be one of the causes of foot-withering syndrome among the wild black abalone Haliotis cracherodii in California, USA (Gardner et al. 1995, Moore et al. 1999). Other parasites that infect different species of abalone include a coccidian (Friedman 1991) and Labyrinthuloides haliotidis (Bower 1987). Polychaetes frequently infest abalone under culture (Ruck & Cook 1998). Virus-like particles were detected in abalone Nordotis discus discus associated with amyotrophia of the mantle and foot, and mortality in juveniles at a nursery in Japan (Nakatsugawa et al. 1999). Previously, shells of H. tuberculata, in France, were only known to be infested by the sponge Cliona celata an...