Host Relationships of Cryptobia salmositica (Protozoa: Mastigophora) in a Western Washington Hatchery Stream

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The periodicity, incidence, and intensity of infection of the hemoflagellate Cryptobia salmositica Katz, 1951, in freshwater fishes corresponds to the biological association between teleost hosts and rhynchobdellid vector: adult and young coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), the torrent sculpin (Cottus rhotheus), and the salmonid leech (Piscicola salmositica). Adult salmon and leeches occupy Soos Creek, a western Washington hatchery stream, only during the fall and winter months. The incidence and intensities of Cryptobia in the maturing salmon increase in response to the period that feeding and infected leeches are carried, and ultimately 80 to 100% of the spawning population acquire the parasites. Young cohos also become infected during the fall and winter, but the incidence is generally less than 5%; the overwintering fingerling population, including the few infected young, emigrates seaward in the spring. The incidence of Cryptobia in the resident sculpin population averages 60%, but significantly lower incidence and higher intensities occur in young fish, those less than 65 mm in length; the sculpins serve as reservoirs of Cryptobia in the study stream.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: