Abstract

The crayfish plague organism Aphanomyces astaci causes the most serious disease of the native European freshwater crayfish. The diagnosis remains often presumptive, due to several problems in sampling of the crayfish and isolation of the agent. The isolation method including microscopy of the soft cuticle, followed by the culture of the infected parts of the cuticle, was used during 1994-1998. In these years, 10 to 27 batches were annually examined for the crayfish plague, 80 batches in total. One to four cases were confirmed positive by isolation each year, 14 % of the batches. Since 1999 the cultivation method was modified to include plating of the entire soft abdominal cuticle and all walking legs on growth medium containing antibiotics, even when no infected areas were seen by microscopy. During 1999-2003, eight to 21 batches were examined annually. Of these 4 to 12 isolations were made every year, 56 % of 64 batches examined. With this modification in protocol it has been possible to diagnose Aphanomyces astaci also outside the periods of mass mortality.

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