Diseases, pathogens and parasites of Undaria pinnatifida

2.2.2. E-mail and personal contacts:
A message about the project requesting literature and general information was sent to Algae-
L, a bulletin-board-type forum for people interested in any aspect of algae (terrestrial,
freshwater and marine). In addition the archives of Algae-L were searched (May 1995 -
October 2007) for any messages containing the words “disease” (37 hits) “pathogen” (19
hits), “parasite” (14 hits). The majority of these were found to be references to books,
microalgae, or to be otherwise irrelevant.
Personal contacts and/or email messages were sent to key researchers in this field including
Professor Juan Correa (Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile), Mr Smith (Australian
Centre for International Agricultural Research, Australia), Dr M. Polne-Fuller (University of
California, Santa Barbara, USA), Dr Bruce Harger (Sunshine Marine Farms, USA), Professor
Ma & Dr Bin Sun (Shanghai Fisheries University, China), Professor Sung Min Boo
(Chungnam National University, Korea), Dr M. Gauna (Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahia
Blanca, Argentina), Dr Danilo Largo (University of San Carlos, Philippines).
2.2.3. Herbaria:
The collections of the herbaria holding the majority of macroalgal specimens in New Zealand
were examined (Auckland Museum – including the Lindauer and ex-Auckland University
collections [AK/AKU], Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa [WELT], Landcare
Manaaki Whenua [CHR]). In addition the NZFungi database of Landcare was searched for
specimens of algal parasitic taxa known to be reported from New Zealand. The data are
presented in Appendix 2.
2.3. DATABASE
An Access database was established to enter data from the relevant papers and to record
details of the diseases, parasites and pathogens. The following fields were included:
• bibliographic data (including author, year, title, book/journal/publication details, abstract,
keywords, comments, language);
• characteristics of the agent (including classification [Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order,
Family, Genus, original genus and species name, current genus and species name, species
authority], common name, agent type, associated species/community, secondary agent);
• characteristics of the host (including classification [Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order,
Family, Genus, original genus and species name, current genus and species name, species
authority], common name, taxonomic hierarchy, with fields for notes and for comments
on the generation of the host affected);
• location data (including world region [based on FAO fisheries regions - Attachment 3],
latitude, longitude, map references, country, location, depth, exposure, temperature,
salinity, water clarity, habitat type, agent stability, timing of occurrence, as well as fields
to record data on epidemiology, seasonality, culture information, disease control, host
impact).
In many cases data were not available, particularly with respect to location data and
epidemiological information, as very little detail was provided in the original literature.
The majority of the required fields for the database were determined at an initial stage and
there was an on-going review of the database effectiveness with additional fields identified
and included after the initial phase of the study.
MAF Biosecurity New Zealand Diseases, pathogens and parasites of Undaria pinnatifida • 7