New/Improved Terminology for aquatic veterinary pathology.

New/Improved Terminology

We’ve been learning about toxicopathology in fishes, taught by Dr Jeff Wolf, the last couple of days at Aquavet II and came across some great stuff I’d like to share.

I’ve been working as a fish veterinarian and a veterinary pathologist for the last 10+ years and have come across some new and improved terminology that I believe we should all adopt. It makes better sense than the older terms.

So, here they are:

“PMC” (pigmented macrophage centre) rather than “MMC” (melanomacrophage centre) because contain more than just melanin. Three pigments that have been demonstrated to be present in these PMCs include melanin, haemosiderin and the lipopigments, lipofuscin/ceroid (formed byoxidation of lipid and retaining a yellowish-brown appearance).

We can see pancreatic cells within most fish livers, but we should not call it “hepatopancreas” – this term reserved for invertebrates. Call intrahepatic or mesenteric pancreas. Liver is liver. Pancreas is pancreas.

When describing vacuolation in liver, use terms such as “glycogen-type vacuolation” or “lipid-type vacuolation” because cannot be sure what was inside them.

With “lipid-like vaculation” you can further classify them as “microvesicular lipid-type vacuolation” and “macrovesicular lipid-type vacuolation”.

“Hepatic lipidosis” should be reserved for pathological finding (deleterious/injurious to the animal’s health) – e.g. if there is breakdown of hepatocellular wall.

“Lepido-“ = “scale”.

Dr Loh’s trip to attend AquaVet has been made possible through the – “People development program: 2011 Aquatic Animal Health Training Scheme which is supported by funding from the FRDC on behalf of the Australian Government”.
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