Haematological changes in South Indian fresh water murrel, Channa punctatus have both EUS and A. hydrophila infection.

The mixed infection in fishes is a common feature and in this Pathogens like Bacteria, Fungi and Protozoan's are found together to cause ill health to the fishes known as Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS). In this syndrome the low temperature and aquatic pollution aggravates the infection in fishes. In the present study the fresh water edible fish, Channa punctatus (Murrel) was found infected with the bacteria namely, Aeromonas hydrophila, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella salmonicida. The fungi, Aphanomyces invadans was also found. The major objective of this study is to understand the microbial intensity in various organs of fish and hematological variations in both control and EUS infected fish. The highest microbial load of 8.2 ± 0.12 × 107 cfu g-1was observed in the skin where as the lowest load of 3.2 ± 0.8 × 103 cfu g-1 was found in the pancreas. From the microbial diagnosis, A. hydrophila has been isolated from different organs indicating its predominant presence. In comparison with the control the haemotological indices like WBC, MCV, Lymophocytes, Eosinophils and Basophils were found increased in the infected by (17 %), (16 %), (5 %), (58 %) and (27 %) respectively. The variations in microbial load found in fish in the study can be attributed to feeding habits, behavior, fish adaptations among the different fish species. These conditions are being caused by the presence of environmental pollution and are high in heavy native fishes. Thus the results showed that low of Haemoglobin value Packed Cell Volume and Red Blood Corpuscles indicated the presence of anemic conditions in the EUS infected fish found in Warangal.