Malachite green therapy of proliferative kidney disease in rainbow trout: field trials

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Fish Diseases Laboratory, Weymouth, Dorset.

The results of a series of experiments to investigate the use of the arylmethane dye, malachite green, for the control of proliferative kidney disease in rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri Richardson) are described. Under field conditions using the bath application method the dye gave good control of the disease with treatments at 1.6 ppm for 40 minutes repeated at seven, 14 and 21 day intervals. Flush treatments were also successful using the same treatment intervals and beginning with 3.2 ppm malachite green. The problems of toxicity and of standardising the exposure of the fish to the dye with flush treatments are discussed.