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As in marine regions throughout other areas of the world, fishes in the Salish Sea serve as hosts for many pathogens, including nematodes, trematodes, protozoans, protists, bacteria, viruses, and crustaceans. Here, we review some of the better-documented infectious diseases that likely contribute to significant losses among free-ranging fishes in the Salish Sea and discuss the environmental and ecological factors that may affect the population-level impacts of disease. Demonstration of these diseases and their impacts to critical and endangered resources provides justification to expand pathogen surveillance efforts and to incorporate disease forecasting and mitigation tools into ecosystem restoration efforts.

A short-term, waterborne exposure and depuration study of Mya arenaria to [ 3 H]tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin([ 3 H]TCDD) was performed. Gill, digestive gland, foot, and gonad were sampled up to 2 weeks after a 24-h exposure to a low dose (10 parts per trillion [pptr]) or high dose (2,000 pptr) of [ 3 H]TCDD in the water. In the gill, peak concentrations occurred at the beginning of depuration (406 and 8,658 pg/g wet weight, low- and high-dose groups, respectively), whereas peak concentrations in the digestive gland and foot were found 12 to 24 h after exposure (digestive gland, 539 and 9,369 pg/g wet weight; foot, 146 and 2,718 pg/g wet weight; low- and high-dose groups, respectively). In contrast, tissue concentrations in the gonad increased through the post-exposure period; at 2 weeks after exposure, tissue concentrations were highest in the gonad (243 and 3,012 pg/g wet weight, low-and high-dose groups, respectively). Examination of gill and gonad by differential display polymerase chain reaction identified potential alterations in expression of genes that may be associated with increased cell cycling or translation initiation. This study shows that M. arenaria can accumulate TCDD in the gonad from an acute exposure, and it identifies several M. arenaria genes whose expression may be altered by TCDD exposure.

Primary cultures of myogenic cells from progressively older embryonic and adult chickens were incubated in medium containing Merocyanine 540 (MC540) and were exposed to white light during the incubation period. After exposure, the cultures were followed to determine cell survival and differentiation. MC540 attached to the surface membranes of all cells. In cultures from 10-day embryos (E10 cells), concentrations of MC540 greater than or equal to 60 micrograms/ml resulted in death of nearly all myogenic cells upon exposure to light, but non-myogenic cells survived and replicated. Below 60 micrograms/ml, there was a dose-dependent reduction in muscle differentiation. At concentrations less than 40 micrograms/ml, there was no effect on myogenesis. Cultures of cells from 18-day (E18) embryos (myogenic stem cells) and from adult muscle (satellite cells) were resistant to doses of MC540 that killed E10 cells. E14 myogenic cell populations contained both resistant and sensitive sub-populations. Terminally differentiated muscle cells were more sensitive to MC540 than precursor cells from any age embryo. Progeny of E18 cells acquired sensitivity to MC540 as differentiation proceeded. In clonal cultures, cells that normally give rise to small muscle clones (committed cells) were selectively destroyed by exposure to the dye. These observations demonstrate that an MC540-resistant myogenic population is present in low numbers in 10-day embryonic pectoral muscle. As development proceeds, this population increases such that, by 18 days of gestation, most of the myogenic cells are resistant to MC540. The results also suggest that embryonic chick myogenic stem cells and adult satellite cells have surface membrane properties which differ from those of their committed progeny.

English sole, Parophrys vetulus, from eight locations within Puget Sound, U.S.A. were examined for histological abnormalities of the liver and kidney. A total of 1083 fish were collected between February 1979 and June 1984 in nine separate sampling periods. Idiopathic lesions, i.e. lesions of unknown cause, were classified into eight hepatic and four renal lesion categories. The significance of certain potential risk factors associated with lesion prevalences, including age, gender, site of capture, season of capture and year of capture, were assessed by logistic regression. The odds ratios for the significant risk factors were also calculated. Site of capture and age of the examined fish were found to be the most important factors for most of the observed lesion types, e.g., hepatic neoplasms and foci of cellular alteration, whereas year and season of capture were significant influences for only a few lesion types, e.g., specific and nonspecific degenerative/necrotic lesions of the liver. Gender of examined fish was not found to be a significant factor for any of the lesion types. These results emphasize the importance of including certain potential influences, such as age and season of capture, in the analysis of field-collected organ pathology data.