Bacterial Kidney Disease BKD is a significant disease of cultured and wild salmonids with Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, trout Salmo trutta and Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus being the natural hosts. The disease is caused by the Gram positive diplobacillus Renibacterium salmoninarum. The disease was first reported in 1933 in Atlantic salmon and was identified in 1954 following cultivation on a cysteineblood enriched medium. BKD has been recorded in cultured salmonid stocks from North and South America, Europe, Japan and Scandinavia. Although salmonids are considered to be the primary hosts, it has been possible to induce experimental infection in nonsalmonid species for example, sablefish, Anaplopoma fimbria.

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