Marine scientists have detected the disease mycobacteriosis, also called fish tuberculosis, in mackerel. The disease has the potential to infect humans.
The disease is most common in farmed fish, and marine scientists have known little about its occurrence in wild fish, writes the Institute of Marine Research in Tromsø.
Most diseases in fish cannot be transmitted to humans, but fish tuberculosis has the potential to do so.
A few years ago, the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research started receiving pictures of mackerel with abnormal kidneys from the fish reception centers that check the quality of the fish. The scientists now can establish that the hitherto unknown kidney disease in mackerel is fish tuberculosis.
It is unknown how wide the scope is, and marine scientists are still receiving reports of mackerel with kidney abnormality disease.
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Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. Mackerel species typically have deeply forked tails … Wikipedia