Salmonid intranuclear microsporidosis

Nucleospora salmonis is an intra-nuclear microsporidian parasite in the family Enterocytozoonidae (Docker et al. 1997). Prespore stages of the parasite were first observed among adult and then juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) by Elston et al. (1987) and Morrison et al. (1990), respectively in Washington, U.S.A. The microsporidian nature of the parasite was subsequently confirmed by the observation of spores in lymphoblasts of juvenile Chinook salmon from California (Hedrick et al. 1991). The principal target cell for N. salmonis are hematopoietic cells which, upon infection, undergo proliferative changes leading to a leukemia-like condition with an accompanying anemia (Wongtavatchai et al. 1995).