
Potassium
Permanganate Kills Fish ParasiteBy Ben Hardin August 21, 2001Fish farmers may soon have a better
way to treat a serious parasitic disease of catfish, known as ich or whitespot.
Scientists found that potassium permanganate quickly stops the parasite in its
tracks. Ichthyophthiriusmultifiliis is a protozoan parasite. In its
microscopic free-swimming stage called a theront, it burrows into skin or gills
of fish to feed on mucus and tissue. It grows to the next stage, a trophont,
and creates a white spot--pustule--resembling a salt grain. When the mature
trophont falls from the fish, it forms a cyst where thousands of theronts
develop. They burst out and resume the cycle--all in a week or less. Agricultural Research Service aquatic
toxicologist David L. Straus exterminated theronts in infested well water in
less than an hour, using doses of potassium permanganate as small as 1 part per
million. With 1.25 ppm he stopped an outbreak of ich--a serious disease of fish
in farm ponds--on channel catfish. He concluded that potassium permanganate,
though more expensive than the favored copper sulfate, would be effective and
less toxic to fish in soft water. Potassium permanganate may also work against
other fish parasites. U.S. fish farmers lose an estimated $50 million a year to diseases. Few
drugs to fight fish diseases have been approved by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But
experiments by Straus and others at ARS'
Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National
Aquaculture Research Center, Stuttgart, Ark., provide information FDA needs
to consider approval of potassium permanganate to treat fish. After exposing
catfish to doses up to 2 ppm for 12 weeks, the scientists found no elevated
manganese in fish flesh or liver and concluded that such treatments would pose
no hazard to people who eat catfish. ARS scientists also provide FDA with information on copper sulfate as a
therapeutic agent for farm-raised fish. FDA restricts use of these agents to
diseases defined by an approved label claim and supported by animal,
environmental and human food safety data. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. U.S. Department of Agriculture |