Histological Confirmation of Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome in Two Cyprinid Species from Lake Liambezi, Zambezi Region, Namibia

A brief history of freshwater fish parasitology in southern Africa

“…Christison et al (2005) reported a new monogenean, Gyrodactylus thlapi, from the southern mouthbrooder Pseudocrenilabrus philander philander in the Okavango River. His most recent contribution to diseases of freshwater fish was confirmation of the presence of Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS) in Lake Liambezi (McHugh et al 2014). This disease was first reported by Andrew et al (2008) from the Chobe and Zambezi rivers and confirmed by Huchzermeyer and van der Waal (2008), who also described the international distribution of this disease.…”

“…He also made a further contribution to Okavango fish parasites by describing a babesian species in the blood of the cichlid Serranochromis angusticeps, referred to previously. He was also involved in the paper confirming the presence of EUS in Lake Liambezi (McHugh et al 2014). Professor Smit's research group at NWU is well established and effectively aquatic parasitology has now also pervaded NWU.…”

First record of epizootic ulcerative syndrome from the Upper Congo catchment: An outbreak in the Bangweulu swamps, Zambia

“…A. invadans shows little host specificity, and by 2008, the disease had been observed in 22 different indigenous species of fish in this area alone (Huchzermeyer & Van der Waal, 2012;Songe et al, 2012), and from over 93 species of fish to date, many of these from the Zambezi floodplains in Southern Africa (Anon 2016a). The disease has subsequently been reported in 2010 from the Okavango Delta in Botswana (Anon 2011), an inland delta where the Kavango River drains into the Kalahari Desert, and in 2011, from Lake Liambezi in Namibia (McHugh, Christison, Weyl, & Smit, 2014). Lake Liambezi receives inflow from the Zambezi, Chobe and Linyati rivers and, as in the case of the Zambezi floodplains, supports a thriving artisanal fishery.…”

“…Therefore, sustainable management of the fishery forms a central part of the conservation strategy of Bangweulu Wetlands(Anon 2016b).Freshwater and estuarine ecosystems in tropical and subtropical climates are particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of EUS(Boys et al, 2012). Initial outbreaks of disease in Africa(Andrew et al, 2008;Anon 2009a;Huchzermeyer & Van der Waal, 2012;McHugh et al, 2014;Songe et al, 2012) have been particularly severe in floodplain ecosystems as observed during this study in the Bangweulu swamps where the initial severe outbreak of 2014 was followed by annual reappearance of the disease during the same months in 2015, 2016 and 2017 (personal observations C. F. Huchzermeyer, Bangweulu…”