Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) Veterinary Diagnostician Cheryl Maguire, DVM, was recently part of a team that authored a journal article documenting a novel pathogen discovered on two splitnose rockfish. Once discovered, samples were submitted to TVMDL in College Station for fungal culture.
Learn more about this case by reading the abstract below or viewing the full text by clicking here.
Abstract
A novel pathogen was documented after two wild‐caught, juvenile, splitnose rockfish presented with buphthalmia, grey corneal endothelial plaques and evidence of uveitis. Cytologic evaluation of ocular contents revealed fungal hyphae. Histologic evaluation identified multiple fungal granulomas and granulomatous inflammation in the globes, periocular tissue and heart. Fungi were slender, hyphenated and branched at angles, had parallel cell walls and had brown pigmentation in haematoxylin‐ and eosin‐stained sections. Both fish were diagnosed with phaeohyphomycosis. Culture with nuclear ribosomal RNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) segment identification further classified the fungus as Devriesia sp., which has not been previously documented as a cause of disease in animals.