Parasitofauna of pike Esox lucius of the Lower Tobol (Russia)

Abstract

One of the predators of the ichthyofauna of the Lower Tobol is Esox lucius (Linnaeus, 1758) (Esociformes, Esocidae). The purpose of this work is to study the current state of the E. lucius parasite fauna in the lower reaches of the Tobol River. In the present study 47 individuals of the northern pike of different sex aged from 2+ to 8+ years were examined by the method of complete parasitological dissection. As a result of the research, 23 types of parasites were found in the pike. The largest number of species of parasitic organisms – 20 – were found in May, 12 were found in December and 11 in September. Of these, 10 species are specific to northern pike: Haemogregarina esoci (Nawrotzky, 1914), Chloromyxum esocinum (Dogiel, 1934), Myxidium lieberkuhni (Biitschli, 1882), Myxosoma anurum (Cohn, 1895), Henneguya psorospermica (Thelohan, 1995), Tetraonchus monenteron (Wagener, 1857), Gyrodactylus lucii (Kulakowskaja, 1951), Triaenophorus nodulosus (Pallas, 1781), Azygia lucii (Miiller, 1776), Raphidascaris acus (Bloch, 1779). For the first time an intraerythrocyte parasite – H. esoci – was found in pike in the Lower Tobol, the extensiveness of invasion was 18.7% in December, and 6.2% in May. Epistylis sp. and Trichodinella epizzotica parasitized on the surface of the body of fish only in May, whereas members of the genus Trichodina were found in winter and spring. In all seasons, parasitization by M. anurum and H. psorospermica was established on the gills. The greatest occurrence of spores of M. lieberkuhni and C. esocinum was observed in the spring. Myxosporidia parasitized in the kidneys and T. monenteron parasitized on the gills during all periods of the study (the latter with an extensivity of invasion of 100.0%). All examined fish are infected with T. nodulosus 100.0% of cases. In May, other types of cestodes were found: P. esocis and Dibothriocephalus latus. Three pike were infected with proteocephalis. The larval stage of diphyllobothriid was found in one fish in the liver and gonads in an amount of 139 individuals. In the pikes’ stomach, during all periods of the study, A. lucii was found in all the fish examined. In the autumn period of the study immature R. campanula were found in in the intestine of 4 fish specimens. The nematode R. acus was found in pike only in spring. This nematode was found in fish aged 4+–8+. In May, glochidia with a high intensity of invasion were found on fins, gill covers and gills of fish. E. sieboldi copepods were found on the gills; in May, one specimen was found in one pike and in September in 6 with AI of 0.7. Tetraonchus monenteron was a dominant species, in May its degree of dominance decreased with the greatest uniformity of species in this study period. Having considered the age dynamics of pike infection by various types of parasites, it was found that in the age group 4+–5+ the number of species of parasites was greatest (20), while in groups 2+–3+ and 6+–8+ it was 14. In the pike, the core parasitic fauna were M. anurum, H. psorospermica, T. monenteron, T. nodulosus, A. lucii. Seasonality has virtually no effect on the degree of infection with specific parasites. The age of fish largely determines the qualitative and quantitative composition of the parasite fauna.

Metazoic parasites of Siberian roach Rutilus rutilus lacustris (Pallas) in the Tobol river

“…Брыжейка четырех и печень одной из обследованных рыб поражены ларвальной стадией Raphidascaris acus (Bloch, 1779). R. acus -нематода, взрослые формы которой паразитируют в кишечнике рыб рода Esox [36], личиночная стадия развития (личиночные формы) -в печени у многих видов ихтиофауны [24], зарегистрирована в Голарктике. Ларвальная статия нематоды R. acus отмечается у плотвы во многих ареалах ее обитания [22,26,27].…”

Türkiye’deki Turna Balığı, Esox lucius (Esocidae)’un Bantlı Karyotipleri

“…The genus Esox consists of five species distributed in North America, Europe, and Eurasia (Gandolfi et al, 2017). Northern pike Esox lucius (Linnaeus, 1758) is a broadly distributed predatory fish in the fresh waters of Eurasia and North America (Liberman et al, 2019).…”

Estudio comparado de las comunidades parasitarias de peces de arroyos pampeanos como indicadores de salud ambiental y biodiversidad según diferentes usos de la tierra

“…Se ha documentado numerosas veces los mayores valores de prevalencia e intensidad de infestación en A. piscicola (Blanchard, 1885) durante el invierno lo cual estaría asociado a las condiciones ambientales menos favorables debido a una disminución en la temperatura del agua y del consumo de alimento del hospedador. Estos patrones están en correlación con la naturaleza comensal de Apiosoma y protozoos en general (Liberman et al, 2019;Blazhekovikj-Dimovska & Stojanovski, 2020). En el A° Rodríguez deberían estar actuando otros factores que retrasan el inicio de los picos máximos de prevalencia hacia la primavera.…”