Sturgeons are the most important fish in the Caspian Sea, but there are only a few reports on their parasite communities in the southern part of this sea. In this study, a total of 93 individuals of four sturgeon species, namely Acipenser stellatus (n= 60), A.gueldenstaedtii (n = 12), A. nudiventris (n = 9) and Huso huso (n = 12), were caught in 2 geographical regions from the southwest of t...

Fish from lagoons in Northern Luzon, Philippines, have been shown experimentally to be intermediate hosts of Capillaria philippinensis. Eggs ingested by the fish hatch in the intestines and the larvae double in size in 3 weeks. When fed to monkeys, Mongolian gerbils and birds, the larvae develop into adults and reproduce. Fish from the lagoons or purchased from the market were fed to gerbils an...

Parasite communities in fish hosts are not uniform in space: their diversity, composition and abundance vary across the geographical range of a host species. Increasingly urgently, we need to understand the geographic component of parasite communities to better predict how they will respond to global climate change. Patterns of geographical variation in the abundance of parasite populations, an...

Non-random species associations occur in naturally sampled parasite communities. The processes resulting in predictable community structure (e.g. particular host behaviours, cross-immunity, interspecific competition) could be affected by traits that vary within a parasite species, like growth or antigenicity. We experimentally infected three-spined sticklebacks with a large tapeworm (Schistocep...

Ecosystem functioning, characterized by components such as productivity and stability, has been extensively linked with diversity in recent years, mainly in plant ecology. The aim of our study was thus to quantify general relationships between diversity, community structure and ecosystem functions in metazoan parasite communities. We used data on parasite communities from 15 species of marine f...

Most ecologists and conservationists perceive parasitic infections as deleterious for the hosts. Their effects, however, depend on many factors including host body condition, parasite load and the life cycle of the parasite. More research into how multiple parasite taxa affect host body condition is required and will help us to better understand host-parasite coevolution. We used body condition...

Global warming scenarios combined with political and public awareness have led to increasing funding and research efforts on the measurement and prediction of effects of a changing world on the ecosystems. Fish parasites represent a major part of aquatic biodiversity, and consequently become affected either directly through the environment or indirectly through their respective hosts. On the ba...

With the rapid development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean, a number of parasitic diseases have emerged in cage-reared fish. In confined rearing conditions, the diseases can induce mortality and economic losses related to suppressed growth. With diversification of aquaculture products and the introduction of new fish species into the rearing system, new parasitic pathogens have found their ...

hole in the head is one of the important diseases of cichlid fishes that caused by heximita or spironucleus infections. in december 2007, a diseased oscar was referred to the veterinary hospital, shahid chamran university, ahvaz, iran. infected fish showed an initial loss of appetite, exophthalmia, darkness of skin followed by holes appearing on the head surface and a complete refusal to feed. ...

Trophic relationships between 10 species of fish host and their associated nematode, cestode, and copepod parasites were investigated using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. Nematodes and cestodes were consistently depleted in 15N with respect to their host, and such fractionation patterns are unlike those conventionally observed between consumers and their diets. Species of copepod paras...