Nutritional lipid liver disease of grass carpCtenopharyngodon idullus (C. et V.)

The inadequate nutrient content of pellet feeds widely used in recent years in China for grass carp farming led to lipid liver degeneration in the fish. The present studies show that the pathological features of lipid liver disease are anaemia and hepatic ceroidosis. Other clinical features are; the ratio of liver to body weight exceeds 3% and lipid content exceeds 5%. Extreme infiltration of hepaiocytes by lipid results in the following deteriorative effects: swelling of the liver cells, increase of lipid droplets in the cytoplasm and dislocation of the nucleus, loss of cytoplasm staining affinity, and increased activities of GOT and GPT in serum. Lipid liver degeneration of grass carp can be divided into three stages: 1) deposition of liver lipid; 2) lipid infiltration of hepatic parenchyma; 3) atrophy of liver nucleus. The causes of lipid liver degeneration are complicated, but the main cause is assumed to be an imbalance of nutrients in daily feed and the lock of some lipotropic substances. A preliminary paper presented at the Asian Symposium on Freshwater Fish Culture, Beijing, October 11–15, 1985.