Occurrence of tumour (odontoma) in marine fish Sphyraena jello from the southeast coast of India.

We examined the occurrence of odontoma in the marine fish Sphyraena jello sourced from 3 different landing centers (Cuddalore, Parangipettai and Nagapattinam) in Tamil Nadu (southeast India). A total of 19783 fishes were examined for odontoma presence, of which 2393 were affected with odontoma. The overall prevalence was 12.1% among the 3 stations. Fish landed at Parangipettai showed the highest peak prevalence of odontoma (16.8%) during the pre-monsoon, followed by Nagapatinam (9.1%) during summer 2011. The tumour lengths in premaxilla, supermaxilla and dentary bone were 1.1-3.6, 1.4-5.9 and 1.2-4.1 cm, respectively, and tumour widths were 0.3-1.9, 0.7-3.1 and 0.5-1.9 cm. Higher prevalence (0.206%) of tongue tumour along with odontoma was observed at Nagapattinam whereas it was lower (0.162%) at Cuddalore. Odontoma histopathology showed dense fibrous tissue with fine teeth roots. TEM analysis showed virus-like particles associated with odontoma. Radiography of the odontoma showed that the tumour masses were bony in nature and tissues were merged with upper and lower jaw.