Health assessment by the climogram of hemochemical constituents in cultured yellowtail.

The hemochemical assessment was made on cultured yellowtail Seriola quinqueradiata. Two year old fishes weighing about 2, 800g were fed on thawed sardine. Investigation was carried out in September, and seawater temperature was about 28°C. Methods of sampling and chemical analysis were reported previously.Fishes assessed swam inactively with some pathological changes observed in almost all organs. Specimen numbers 1 and 5 had hepatic lesion judging from increase of aspartate aminotransferase (GOT), alanine aminotransferase (GPT) and alkaline phosphatase (Al-P) activities. No. 2 was anemic due to malnutrition. Nos. 3 and 4 were not comparatively serious in the condition of disease. No. 6 was in serious condition because of an anemia, undernutrition and hepatic malfunction. Nos. 7 and 8 were not comparatively serious in hepatic function. Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 had Streptococcicosis. Streptococcus sp. infection was associated with increases in plasma glucose level and Al-P activity. All specimens had feed trouble judging from the hemochemical assessment and patho-anatomical symptoms.Fatness, hemoglobin, hematocrit, plasma constituents (total protein, urea-N, total cholesterol, glucose, inorganic P and chloride) and plasma enzymes (GOT, GPT and Al-P) were plotted in a climogram. The graph showed a characteristic pattern for the condition of health with varied extent and irregularity on the above fish examples. This shows the high utility value of this graph for health assessment.