Parasites of Fish from the Great Lakes - Great Lakes Fishery ...

Fish Families—Parasite Communities
Most parasites reported from catostomids, centrarchids, and percids were digenetic trematodes;
most from cyprinids were monogeneans and digenetic trematodes. Most parasites infecting
salmonids were nematodes followed by cestodes and copepods. Most fish species examined from
this lake were cyprinids (20 species) followed by salmonids (14 species). Cyprinids and
salmonids harbored 67 and 49 parasite species, respectively. The centrarchids and percids
harbored 60 and 63 parasite species, respectively. The salmonids had the highest percentage
(84%) of autogenic helminth species and the cyprinids had the highest percentage (33%) of
allogenic species. The percentages of autogenic helminth species in fish in these families varied
from 67% to 84%. Based on the available literature from a fish family and parasite perspective,
Lake Huron is characterized by having a mixture of cyprinid, salmonid, centrarchid, and percid
species and their autogenic parasites.
The reported autogenic helminth species that mature in fish include larval/immature trematodes
(Bucephalus sp., Centrovarium lobotes), larval/immature cestodes (Eubothrium salvelini,
Eubothrium sp., Bothriocephalus sp., Cyathocephalus truncatus, Proteocephalus ambloplitis, P.
pearsei, Proteocephalus spp., Triaenophorus crassus T. nodulosus), larval/immature nematodes
(Hysterothylacium brachyurum, Hysterothylacium sp., Raphidascaris acus, Raphidascaris sp.,
Camallanus oxycephalus, Camallanus sp., Capillaria salvelini, Capillaria sp., Truttaedacnitis
clitellarius, Cystidicola sp., Spinitectus gracilis, Philometra sp., Haplonema hamulatum,
Haplonema sp.), immature acanthocephalans (Echinorhynchus salmonis, Echinorhynchus sp.,
Neoechinorhynchus tumidus, Pomphorhynchus bulbocolli, Leptorhynchoides thecatus). Of the
allogenic helminth species found in fish, larvae of the digenetic trematodes (Clinostomum
complanatum, Crassiphiala bulboglossa, Diplostomum baeri eucaliae, D. flexicaudum, D.
huronense, D. spathaceum, Diplostomum sp., Neascus sp., Posthodiplostomum minimum,
Uvulifer ambloplitis, Apophallus brevis, Ichthyocotylurus intermedia, Ichthyocotylurus sp.,
Proalaria huronensis, Tylodelphys scheuringi) mature in piscivorous birds; larvae of the cestodes
of Diphyllobothrium ditremum, Ligula intestinalis, Schistocephalus solidus and Hymenolepis sp.
mature in piscivorous birds; larvae of Diphyllobothrium laruei mature in mammals;
immature/larval nematodes of Contracaecum sp., Eustrongylides tubifex, and Eustrongylides sp.
mature in birds; and Spiroxys contortus and Spiroxys sp. mature in turtles.
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