Environmental stress and bacterial infection in channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus Rafinesque

Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, were injected intraperitoneally with a sublethal dose of Aerornonas hydrophila and then stressed for 144 h by being maintained either in a dissolved oxygen concentration of 1·5 mg/1, 1·2 mg/1 total ammonia, and/or 6·5 mg/1 free CO2 with a continuous inflow of water. A significant difference in percentage of mortality was noted between treatments (P < 0·05). The trunk kidneys of surviving stressed fish had significantly higher total bacterial counts than non‐stressed controls. A. hydrophila was isolated from 67% of the stressed fish and 9% of the control fish. Edwardsiella tarda, apparently endemic in the population, was isolated from 43% of the stressed fish and 7% of the control fish. Histopathological lesions were in the gills, liver, spleen, trunk kidney, and head kidney of stressed fish, but not control fish.