SHERBURNE: ERYTHROCYTE DEGENERATION IN HERRING 



Table 2. — The occurrence of inclusion bodies in the cytoplasm of herring erythrocytes, 25 February-30 October 1969. 



Sample source 

 and cafegoryi 



Date 



Incidence 



in 

 sample 



Percent 

 Incidence 



Water Mean length, SD, 



temp. and range of sample 



CC) (cm) 



Mean weight, SD 

 and range of sample 



(g) 



Long-term captives 

 Wild, Sheepscot River, 



Boothbay Hartxir 

 Long-term captives 

 Long-term captives 

 Wild, Eostport, Maine 

 Long-term coiptives 

 Wild, Spruce Point, 



Boothbay Harbor 

 Wild, Deer Island, 



N.B., Canada 

 Short-term captives 

 Short-term captives 

 Short-term captives 

 Short term captives 



25 Feb. 



0/25 



0.0 



2.9 

 0.0 



0.0 



0.0 

 16.7 



6.6 



4.0 

 96.0 

 12.0 

 0.0 

 0.0 



1.3 



2.0 

 3.3 

 4.9 

 7.7 

 15.2 



13.8 



9.8 

 16.0 

 14.0 

 15.5 

 9.2 



15.3 ±0.79(14.0-17.2) 



16.4 ±2.0 (13.5-19.0) 

 16.0 ±0.99(13.2-17.5) 

 16.3 ±0.99(14.3-17.7) 

 22.2 ±3.0 (14.5-30.4) 

 16.2 ± 1.4 (13.1-18.0) 



15.5 ± 1.4 (12.5-18.5) 



21.0 ± 1.9 



16.0 ± 1.2 



16.1 ± 1.3 

 17.7 ± 1.2 



16.2 ± 1.1 



(13.9-25.2) 

 (14.4-18.0) 

 (13.2-18.6) 

 (15.3-20X)) 

 (15.1-19J3) 



20.2 ± 4.3(14.1- 29.0) 



26.2 ± 9.7(14.0- 42.0) 



20.7 ± 4.5C10.6- 29.4) 

 23.0 ± 5.0C14.9- 33.1) 



80.3 ±41.3(18.0-214.5) 



22.8 ± 5.8(14.1- 34.7) 



23.7 ± 6.6(12.8- 43.4) 



81.0 ±21.1(13.6-133.0) 

 25.3 ± 5.7(17.6- 36.4) 



22.1 ± 6.2(11.7- 40.9) 



29.9 ± 7.4(18.5- 48.1) 

 20.6 ± 4.2(16.3- 27.6) 



* Long-term captives— Boothbay Harbor herring held 6 months before 

 Short-term captives— herring from wild 8 July sample held 2 weeks 



and standard deviation and range in weights 

 of all herring included in this study are given 

 in Table 2. 



DESCRIPTION OF INCLUSION BODIES 



The inclusions are round, granular, intracyto- 

 plasmic and appear acidophilic with Wright's 

 stain. The inclusions generally occur singly in 

 the affected cells and vary in size with the largest 

 inclusions usually in the youngest cells. A few 

 red cells contained two inclusions. The bodies 

 characteristically range in size from 2.3 to 3.3 /it 

 in early polychromatics, 1.7 to 1.9 /a in middle 

 polychromatics, and 1.3 to 1.6 jx in late poly- 

 chromatics and mature erjrthrocytes. The in- 

 clusions vary from bright red to reddish-purple 

 in contrast with the blue-gray cytoplasm of the 

 young cells and the dull orange-yellow cytoplasm 

 of the mature cells. Many inclusions have a 

 dark-purple periphery with a light central zone; 

 other inclusions are the same color throughout. 

 Some of the larger inclusions appear to have at 

 least four small, dense-staining particles within 

 or along the periphery of the inclusion. 



Inclusions were not found outside the red 

 cells, nor were inclusions observed in any white 

 cells of the 355 herring examined in this study. 



MORPHOLOGY 



Wild herring that did not contain inclusions 

 ranged from 3 to 35% with an average of 20% 



being bled, 

 before being bled. 



immature erythrocytes, while captive herring 

 without inclusions ranged from 2 to 25% with 

 an average of 14% immature erythrocytes in 

 their peripheral blood. 



Two types of morphology usually character- 

 ized the blood of herring that contained inclu- 

 sions: either upward to 90% immature red cells 

 or a low of 1 to 5% immature red cells. The single 

 herring with inclusions in March had the highest 

 percentage of immature erythrocytes I had found 

 in wild herring to that date. Eighty percent of 

 the red cells were immature, with 12% of the im- 

 mature and 90 % of the mature cells affected with 

 inclusions. Erythroblasts, rare in a normal blood 

 sample, were abundant on this slide. The inclu- 

 sions occurred singly in the cytoplasm and varied 

 in size; the largest were in the youngest cells. 

 The bodies ranged in size from 2.3 to 3.1 /i in 

 early polychromatics, 1.7 to 1.9 jx in middle poly- 

 chromatics, and 1.3 to 1.6 /a in late polychromat- 

 ics and mature erythrocytes. The nucleus of the 

 affected cells exhibited vacuolization and pyk- 

 nosis. Abnormally large immature red cells 

 (macrocytes) were evident with atypical cells 

 present in all developmental stages (Figure 1). 

 The remaining 34 herring in the sample had 

 normal red cell morphology (Figure 2). 



Inclusions first appeared in long-term captive 

 herring in June in 2 out of 12 specimens. These 

 two herring had the lowest hematocrits of the 

 sample. The blood morphology of the two af- 

 fected herring differed. One herring had 60% 



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