title: Gross signs and histopathology of branchiostegal blister disease (balloon disease): an idiopathic disease of farmed Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man).
abstract: The giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, is facing increased threat due to disease as its culture becomes more widespread. A disease characterized by the swelling of the branchiostegal region and deformities of the appendages, named balloon disease by farmers, has caused considerable economic loss in the Nellore region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Clinical signs of diseased animals include a voluminous hypertrophy of some gill filaments and the inner area of the branchiostegite. By histology, hypertrophied areas at the level of the gill filaments or branchiostegite had an identical structure corresponding to a large cyst filled with a fluid containing a few free haemocytes, limited on one side by the cuticle and on the other by the subcuticular epithelial layer. Analysis of the diseased prawns did not reveal any pathogenic agent leading us to conclude that the disease is idiopathic, probably due to suboptimal water quality conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Kerala Agricultural University, Cochin, India.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pillai
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Salin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Widada
authors.forename: J-R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Bonami
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017756:Aquaculture; D001934:Branchial Region / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006652:Histological Techniques; D007194:India; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D033541:Palaemonidae; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction