Resistance to Crayfish Plague: Assessing the Response of Native Iberian Populations of the White-Clawed Freshwater Crayfish

Crayfish plague, caused by the oomycete pathogen Aphanomyces astaci, is one of the most devastating of the emerging infectious diseases. This disease is responsible for the decline of native European and Asian freshwater crayfish populations. Over the last few decades, some European crayfish populations were reported to display partial to total resistance to the disease. The immune response in these cases was similar to that exhibited by the natural carriers of the pathogen, North American freshwater crayfish, e.g., weak-to-strong melanization of colonizing hyphae. We tested the degree of resistance displayed by 29 native Iberian populations of Austropotamobius pallipes that were challenged by zoospores of the pathogen. We measured the following parameters: (i) mean survival time, (ii) cumulative mortality, and (iii) immune response, and found that the total cumulative mortality of all the challenged populations was 100%. The integration of the results from these parameters did not allow us to find differences in resistance towards A. astaci among the northern and central populations of the Iberian Peninsula. However, in the southern populations, we could identify four distinct population responses based on an evaluation of a GLM analysis. In the first case, the similar response could be explained by the effect of a pathogen strain with a lower-than-expected virulence, and/or an actual increase in resistance. In the Southern populations, these differences appear to be the consequence of either whole population or individual resistance. Individuals that survived for a longer period than the others showed a stronger immune response, i.e., presence of partially or fully melanized hyphae, which is similar to that of North American crayfish species. This might be the consequence of different mechanisms of resistance or/and tolerance towards A. astaci.