¡@Dr.
Chao (left) and me in 1997
This laboratory has been a major contributor to fish disease diagnosis service for about 18 years. Dr. Chia-Ben Chao, DVM built this laboratory from scratch. He invested a great deal of time and energy, and even a portion of his own salary!
For the past few years, this lab received over one thousand diagnostic cases and had them on records. There were more minor cases that got solved, unfortunately, over the telephone. Fish farmers suffered from these diseases, and we tried to learn from these painful experiences. Now in this laboratory we have PCR thermal cycler, ultra centrifuge, automatic tissue processor for paraffin embedding, microtome, critical point dryer for SEM, ultramicrotome.
Scene
beside fish pond after an major outbreak
I worked in this laboratory for 1 year, and came
to US for Ph.D study in June, 1998. Several new members have entered this
laboratory since I left, and have made big contribution to fish disease
research.
There are still lots of problems to be solved in soft-shelled turtle culture.
The major work in this lab are case diagnosis and mentoring treatments. Because there is little information on the diseases we have in Taiwan, we need to figure them out ourselved before we can effectively help the fish farmers. There's always time pressure in solving an outbreak. You have fish dying every day in the field, and if you can't find a way to solve it, in a week there will be no fish to save. Besides this, the authorities seem to put a lower priority on this problem, and inappropriate allocation of research fund, results in great difficulty in fish disease research. So, what happened here is, going with all our ability and see what we can achieve.
Pipe for transporting seawater to culture pond. Sometimes these pipes can
go as long as several kilometers.
The major diseases in this region are (please
also refer to Fish Diseases in Taiwan
page)
Marine white spot disease (Cryptocaryon irritans infestation)
Viral nervous necrosis in grouper (and other fish) larvae
Severe skin ulceration in grouper
Iridovirus infection in grouper
Streptococcus infection in tilapia, seaperch and other fish
Rickettsia-like organism infection in tilapia
Last Update: 30 October 2001