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Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite

The infection consequences of the introduced cestode fish parasite Bothriocephalus acheilognathi were studied in a cohort of wild, young-of-the-year common carp Cyprinus carpio that lacked co-evolution with the parasite. Within the cohort, parasite prevalence was 42% and parasite burdens were up to...

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Autores principales: Britton, J. Robert, Pegg, Josephine, Williams, Chris F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195689/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22022606
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026365
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author Britton, J. Robert
Pegg, Josephine
Williams, Chris F.
author_facet Britton, J. Robert
Pegg, Josephine
Williams, Chris F.
author_sort Britton, J. Robert
collection PubMed
description The infection consequences of the introduced cestode fish parasite Bothriocephalus acheilognathi were studied in a cohort of wild, young-of-the-year common carp Cyprinus carpio that lacked co-evolution with the parasite. Within the cohort, parasite prevalence was 42% and parasite burdens were up to 12% body weight. Pathological changes within the intestinal tract of parasitized carp included distension of the gut wall, epithelial compression and degeneration, pressure necrosis and varied inflammatory changes. These were most pronounced in regions containing the largest proportion of mature proglottids. Although the body lengths of parasitized and non-parasitized fish were not significantly different, parasitized fish were of lower body condition and reduced weight compared to non-parasitized conspecifics. Stable isotope analysis (δ(15)N and δ(13)C) revealed trophic impacts associated with infection, particularly for δ(15)N where values for parasitized fish were significantly reduced as their parasite burden increased. In a controlled aquarium environment where the fish were fed ad libitum on an identical food source, there was no significant difference in values of δ(15)N and δ(13)C between parasitized and non-parasitized fish. The growth consequences remained, however, with parasitized fish growing significantly slower than non-parasitized fish, with their feeding rate (items s(−1)) also significantly lower. Thus, infection by an introduced parasite had multiple pathological, ecological and trophic impacts on a host with no experience of the parasite.
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spelling pubmed-31956892011-10-21 Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite Britton, J. Robert Pegg, Josephine Williams, Chris F. PLoS One Research Article The infection consequences of the introduced cestode fish parasite Bothriocephalus acheilognathi were studied in a cohort of wild, young-of-the-year common carp Cyprinus carpio that lacked co-evolution with the parasite. Within the cohort, parasite prevalence was 42% and parasite burdens were up to 12% body weight. Pathological changes within the intestinal tract of parasitized carp included distension of the gut wall, epithelial compression and degeneration, pressure necrosis and varied inflammatory changes. These were most pronounced in regions containing the largest proportion of mature proglottids. Although the body lengths of parasitized and non-parasitized fish were not significantly different, parasitized fish were of lower body condition and reduced weight compared to non-parasitized conspecifics. Stable isotope analysis (δ(15)N and δ(13)C) revealed trophic impacts associated with infection, particularly for δ(15)N where values for parasitized fish were significantly reduced as their parasite burden increased. In a controlled aquarium environment where the fish were fed ad libitum on an identical food source, there was no significant difference in values of δ(15)N and δ(13)C between parasitized and non-parasitized fish. The growth consequences remained, however, with parasitized fish growing significantly slower than non-parasitized fish, with their feeding rate (items s(−1)) also significantly lower. Thus, infection by an introduced parasite had multiple pathological, ecological and trophic impacts on a host with no experience of the parasite. Public Library of Science 2011-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3195689/ /pubmed/22022606 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026365 Text en Britton et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Britton, J. Robert
Pegg, Josephine
Williams, Chris F.
Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite
title Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite
title_full Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite
title_fullStr Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite
title_full_unstemmed Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite
title_short Pathological and Ecological Host Consequences of Infection by an Introduced Fish Parasite
title_sort pathological and ecological host consequences of infection by an introduced fish parasite
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195689/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22022606
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026365
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