A member of the imperfect fungi was isolated on a soytone-dextrose agar medium with chloramphenicol and cycloheximide from gill lesions of Penaeus japonicus BATE infected with black gill disease. Intramusculaly inoculation of conidia of the fungus caused invariably black gill disease in prawns, and the fungus could be isolated from gill lesions of artificially-infected prawns. The gills of healthy prawns were alway free of the fungus. Therefore the fungus was regarded as the pathogenic agent of black gill disease. The fungus produces mainly 4-celled, canoe-shaped macroconidia and 1-celled microconidia. Usually the mycelium is hyaline, but it characteristically produces a brown pigment when grown on the above-mentioned medium, salt Sabouraud's medium, and a salt potato-dextrose agar medium. On the basis of morphological criteria, this fungus fits best in the genus Fusarium.
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EGUSA et al. (1972) studied this question.