Are African longfin eel imports a potential pathway for parasite invasions?

0431765 - BC 2015 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Weyl, O. - Taraschewski, H. - Moravec, František
Are African longfin eel imports a potential pathway for parasite invasions?
Journal of Fish Diseases. Roč. 37, č. 9 (2014), s. 843-845. ISSN 0140-7775. E-ISSN 1365-2761
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : Anguilla * Anguillicola * Anguillicoloide * invasion * pathway * trade
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 2.056, year: 2014

Live eels of the genus Anguilla Schrank are traded globally for human consumption, stock enhancement and aquaculture (Tesch 2003). Live animal imports are a global problem and have been a major pathway for introductions of parasitic organisms into novel ecosystems and hosts (Taraschewski 2006; Costello et al. 2007). Impacts of such introductions can be severe, particularly when parasites infect hosts that have not evolved a resistance to them (Kennedy 2007). A good example is Anguillicoloides crassus Kuwahara, Niimi & Itagaki (Anguillicola according to Laetsch et al. 2012), a blood-feeding parasite of eel swimbladders that has spread from its natural host the Japanese eel Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel to naıve eel hosts on four continents (Lefebvre et al. 2012). In naıve European eel Anguilla anguilla L., A. crassus are larger and more fecund and occur at higher prevalence and intensity than in their native host (Weclawski et al. 2013). This can result in severe impacts on the host population, and the A. crassus invasion is thought to have contributed to the decline in A. anguilla populations in Europe (Wirth & Bernatchez 2003; Wielgoss et al. 2008).
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0236349