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Intestinal digenetic trematodes found in double-crested cormorant populations in the Mississippi Delta and the potential impact of these parasites on commercial and wild fish species found in this region

Double-crested cormorants have steadily increased in the Mississippi Delta. This bird serves as a definitive host for digenetic trematodes, many of which infect fish. To identify these digeneans in cormorants and determine the impact these infections have on wild fish in the Mississippi Delta, two surveys were done. Cormorants were collected for two years in the Mississippi Delta. At necropsy trematodes were collected and identified morphologically and molecularly as: Austrodiplostomum ostrowskiae, Hysteromorpha triloba, Drepanocephalus spathans, Ascocotyle longa and Pseudopsilostoma varium. Additionally, 14 fish species were collected from a Mississippi Delta lake. Fish were examined for parasites and Posthodiplostomum minimum metacercariae were found in multiple organs in 6/14 fish species. The 18S gene sequences of these metacercariae were identical to published P. minimum sequences, whereas the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences matched published COI sequences for Posthodiplostomum sp. 3, 5 and 8, suggesting subspecies of Posthodiplostomum in this fish population.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-3787
Date06 August 2011
CreatorsO'Hear, Mary McPherson
PublisherScholars Junction
Source SetsMississippi State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations

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