Variation in the parasite community of the sardine fishTriportheus nematurus(Actinopterygii: Characidae) from the Medalha lagoon in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil

2013 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Costa-Pereira ◽  
F. Paiva ◽  
L.E.R. Tavares

AbstractIn July 2009 and July 2010 (two dry periods separated by an atypically large flood in the Pantanal wetland of Brazil), 34 and 33 specimens of the sardine fishTriportheus nematuruswere collected, respectively, for the study of the metazoan parasite community of this species. Parasite ecological and community descriptors were calculated for both host samples, and possible similarities were tested statistically. Five species of metazoan parasites were identified, four of which were common to both host samples. A total of 61 metazoan parasites were collected from all fish hosts (17 specimens in July 2009 (mean: 0.5 ± 0.66 parasites/fish) and 44 specimens in July 2010 (mean: 1.33 ± 1.41 parasites/fish)). The nematodeProcamallanus hilariiand the monogeneanAnacanthorussp. were the most prevalent and abundant species in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The mean total abundance and species richness were significantly higher in 2010. Parasite communities in both samples ofT. nematuruswere characterized by species with low prevalence, abundance, mean total abundance and species richness, thus indicating low parasite diversity. Significant differences in the prevalence and abundance ofP. hilariiandAnacanthorussp. between the two samples allowed the discrimination of infracommunities, which were united in two distinct groups. This appears to be the first evidence that the peculiar hydrological dynamics of the southern Pantanal wetland (Brazil) exert an important influence over the structure of the parasite community.

Parasite ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Violante-González ◽  
Scott Monks ◽  
Yesenia Gallegos-Navarro ◽  
Nataly G. Santos-Bustos ◽  
Princessa J. Villalba-Vasquez ◽  
...  

Parasite communities in Caranx sexfasciatus were characterized and analyzed to determine any interannual variations in structure and/or species composition. In total, 422 C. sexfasciatus were collected from Acapulco Bay, Mexico, between May 2016 and March 2019. Thirty-two taxa of metazoan parasites were identified: five Monogenea, thirteen Digenea, one Acanthocephala, one Cestoda, three Nematoda, seven Copepoda, and two Isopoda. Monogeneans were the most frequent and abundant parasite species in all sampling years. Parasite species richness at the component community level varied significantly from 8 (May 2016) to 25 (March 2019) and was similar to previous reports for other species of Carangidae. The component communities and infracommunities in C. sexfasciatus were characterized by low parasite species numbers, low diversity, and dominance of a single species (the monogenean Neomicrocotyle pacifica). Parasite community structure and species composition varied between sampling years and climatic seasons. Seasonal or local fluctuations in some biotic and abiotic environmental factors probably explain these variations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. A. Soares ◽  
J. L. Luque

Abstract A study of seasonal variation of metazoan parasite community of Pagrus pagrus was conducted between January and December 2012. Two hundred forty specimens of Pagrus pagrus were collected in four seasons (autumn and winter in dry season and spring and summer in rainy season) from off the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Twenty one species of metazoan parasites were found, with larvae of Hysterothylacium sp. being the dominant species. The highest values of prevalence and abundance was during the rainy season with peak prevalence of monogeneans and nematodes, period of action of the South Atlantic Central Waters (SACW) and reproductive activity of the host, suggesting that the sasonal variation in the parasites community was influenced for these phenomena.


2015 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hermida ◽  
A. Pereira ◽  
A.T. Correia ◽  
C. Cruz ◽  
A. Saraiva

AbstractBlue jack mackerel,Trachurus picturatus,is a carangid fish which constitutes an important commercial resource in the north-east Atlantic. Its metazoan parasite community from Portuguese mainland waters was investigated here for the first time. Nine parasite taxa were found, most of which are common parasites ofTrachurusspp. The parasite community was broadly similar to that of the Atlantic horse mackerel,T. trachurus, from the same region, but two digenean species were detected in blue jack mackerel,Monascus filiformisandTergestiasp., which did not occur in horse mackerel from this region. A comparison with the two previous studies ofT. picturatusparasite communities shows that continental-shelf regions are characterized by higher prevalences of digenean trematodes and an absence of trypanorhynch cestodes, in contrast with oceanic regions.


Author(s):  
Odonei Moia Almeida ◽  
Marcos Sidney Brito Oliveira ◽  
Marcos Tavares-Dias

Abstract Parasites are an important part of biodiversity, and knowledge of species and their relationship with their hosts helps in monitoring an ecosystem over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the fauna of metazoan parasites in Hemiodus unimaculatus from the Jari River, in the eastern Amazon region, northern Brazil. Of the fish examined, 96.7% were parasitized by one or more species, and a total of 336 parasites such as Dactylogyridae gen. sp.1, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.2, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.3, Dactylogyridae gen. sp.4, Gyrodactilydae gen. sp., Urocleidoides sp.1, Urocleidoides sp.2, Urocleidoides sp.3, metacercariae of Digenea gen. sp., Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) inopinatus, Contracaecum sp., Neoechinorhynchus sp. and Acarina gen. sp. The parasite community showed low Brillouin diversity (0.58 ± 0.29), low evenness (0.44 ± 0.21) and low species richness (7.40 ± 3.83). There was a predominance of ectoparasites, mainly monogeneans and digeneans. The parasites showed an aggregate dispersion, except for P. (S.) inopinatus, which had a random dispersion. The size of the hosts had no effect on diversity, species richness and abundance of parasites, but other factors structured the parasite community. This is the first study on the parasite community and infracommunities in H. unimaculatus.


1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (12) ◽  
pp. 2003-2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Knudsen ◽  
R. Kristoffersen ◽  
P.-A. Amundsen

In this study from Fjellfrøsvatn, an oligotrophic lake in northern Norway, the parasite communities in two sympatric Arctic charr populations were compared. The dwarf morph, which inhabits the profundal zone, exhibited the lowest parasite diversity, seven species, and 72% of these charr harboured only one or two parasite species. In contrast, 10 parasite species were encountered in the larger normal charr, and between 5 and 8 species were present in 73% of these fish, which also utilised a broader food and habitat niche. Proteocephalus sp. was by far the most abundant species in the dwarf charr, probably because this morph fed intensively upon the benthic copepod Acanthocyclops gigas. On the other hand, parasites that are transmitted with littoral benthic prey (i.e., Phyllodistomum umblae, Cyathocephalus truncatus, Cystidicola farionis, and Crepidostomum spp.) were almost absent in the dwarf charr, though they were common in the normal morph. Also, Diphyllobothrium spp. were more prevalent in the normal charr, and this was attributed to their feeding upon limnetic copepods in the pelagic zone. The only recorded parasite with a direct life cycle, the copepod Salmincola edwardsii, had relatively similar abundances in the two morphs. The considerable differences in parasite community structure and abundance between the two charr populations were closely related to differences in the width and composition of the habitat and food niches between the morphs.


Author(s):  
William Felix Borges ◽  
Marcos Sidney Brito Oliveira ◽  
Marcos Tavares-Dias

Abstract The aim of this study was to compare the diversity and community structure of metazoan parasites in sympatric populations of Triportheus angulatus and Triportheus auritus in the Jari River basin, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. All the specimens of T. angulatus and T. auritus examined were infected by Anacanthorus furculus, Anacanthorus pithophallus, Digenea gen. sp., Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) inopinatus, Rhabdochona acuminata, Contracaecum sp., Ergasilus sp. and Acarina gen. sp. These parasites displayed aggregated or random dispersion. The parasite community in T. angulatus and T. auritus presented a similarity of 78%. The diversity indice and richness of parasite species were greater in T. auritus and there were differences in levels of host parasite infection for some infracommunities. Phyllodistomum spatula occurred only in T. angulatus, while metacercariae of Clinostomum marginatum and Digenea gen. sp.2 occurred only in T. auritus. The species richness of the parasites was influenced by host size, as well as the abundance of some parasite infracommunities. This is the first report of these parasites for T. angulatus and T. auritus, except for P. (S.) inopinatus and Contracaecum sp. for T. angulatus.


2010 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Poulin ◽  
T.L.F Leung

AbstractAlthough latitudinal gradients in diversity have been well studied, latitudinal variation in the taxonomic composition of communities has received less attention. Here, we use a large dataset including 950 surveys of helminth endoparasite communities in 650 species of vertebrate hosts to test for latitudinal changes in the relative contributions of trematodes, cestodes, nematodes and acanthocephalans to parasite assemblages. Although the species richness of helminth communities showed no consistent latitudinal variation, their taxonomic composition varied as a function of both host type and latitude. First, trematodes and acanthocephalans accounted for a higher proportion of species in helminth communities of fish, whereas nematodes achieved a higher proportion of the species in communities of bird and especially mammal hosts. Second, the proportion of trematodes in helminth communities of birds and mammals increased toward higher latitudes. Finally, the proportion of nematodes per community increased toward lower latitudes regardless of the type of host. We present tentative explanations for these patterns, and argue that new insights in parasite community ecology can be gained by searching for latitudinal gradients not only in parasite species richness, but also in the taxonomic composition of parasite assemblages.


Parasitology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. TIMI ◽  
R. POULIN

SUMMARYThe search for nested subset patterns has become a powerful tool for understanding the processes shaping parasite communities. Here, we re-examine the results of past studies on nestedness in parasite communities, to assess how sensitive they are to the analytical method used. Using the metricNand the null model RANDOM1, the first method available to study nested patterns, early studies concluded that nestedness was infrequent in parasite communities. In contrast later studies, using instead the metricTand the nestedness temperature calculator (NTC), found that nested subset patterns were very common in parasite communities. Recently, a new algorithm, the binary matrix nestedness temperature calculator (BINMATNEST), has been proposed to quantify nestedness. Using data on 31 helminth communities of fish hosts, we show that applying the NTC yields consistently more significant nested patterns than whenNand RANDOM1 are used on the same data. The use of BINMATNEST produced results that depend on the choice of the null model. To provide a benchmark, a straightforward comparison between the observed frequencies of co-occurrences of species with those expected from their prevalence under random assembly was also made for each community. This test indicates that random structure occurs in practically all communities, even those where one of the nestedness analyses found a significant pattern. We demonstrate that the probability of finding a nested pattern in a parasite community depends entirely on the metric and null model chosen for analysis.


Parasitology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. GONZÁLEZ ◽  
M. E. OLIVA

The understanding of the patterns and processes underlying the structure of parasite communities has progressed significantly in the last years; however, much of the evidence available to date on parasite community comes from unconfirmed studies. In this study the ectoparasite communities of 2 related rockfishes, Sebastes capensis and Helicolenus lengerichi, from the southern Chilean coast (ca. 40 °S) were examined to determine whether their specific compositions are similar, structured in non-random ways, and repeatable among years. From 2001 to 2004, 189 specimens of S. capensis and 101 of H. lengerichi were examined, 10 and 9 parasite species were recorded in S. capensis and H. lengerichi, respectively. Component ectoparasite communities of these hosts were taxonomically similar (60%), but the abundances and prevalences of their parasites differed significantly among years and between hosts. The most prevalent species were Lepeophtheirus chilensis, and Microcotyle sp. for S. capensis, and Microcotyle sp., Juanetia continentalis, and Interniloculus chilensis for H. lengerichi. Infracommunities of S. capensis showed higher species richness and parasite numbers than those of H. lengerichi. The similarity among infracommunities (measured as parasite abundance) varied significantly among years both within and between hosts. Despite this, temporal nestedness patterns were observed in infracommunities of these hosts, suggesting that their ectoparasite communities are structured and might be predictable in time, at least in the southern Chilean coast where they share the same habitat.


2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chacha Mwita ◽  
Gamba Nkwengulila

AbstractThe factors that determine parasite assemblages among the clariid fishes of Lake Victoria, Tanzania were studied between August 2003 and February 2005. Six hundred and fifty-six fish belonging to seven species were necropsied and examined for parasites, from which 31 species of metazoan parasites were recorded. The community was dominated by the nematodes both in species and numbers. Most species were generalists with only two trematodes, Diplostomum mashonense and Tylodelphys species, being specialists of Clarias gariepinus. Ten species were considered core and predictable. Parasite species richness, number of individuals per host and Shannon–Wiener diversity indices were generally high. At the compound community level, a mean number of 7.8 parasites were shared among different species of fish and the maximum number of parasites species per fish at the infracommunity level was seven. Levels of similarity in parasite species richness at the component community level ranged from 29.6 to 61.5%. The study concludes that parasite communities in clariid fishes of Lake Victoria are structured by ecological factors. At the infracommunity level, host size, diet and vagility promoted a richer parasite community. At the compound level, two factors were crucial, namely the intermixing of the waters in the lake and the predominant and mobile C. gariepinus.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document