Transmission of Myxobolus arcticus Pugachev and Khokhlov, 1979, a myxosporean parasite of Pacific salmon, via a triactinomyxon from the aquatic oligochaete Stylodrilus heringianus (Lumbriculidae)

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Abstract
Laboratory transmission studies were conducted on Myxobolus arcticus, a myxosporean that infects the brain of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). Attempts at transmission from fish to fish with spores of M. arcticus from sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), including experiments with spores aged for up to 9 months in sterilized mud, were unsuccessful. Transmission was achieved when hatchery-reared (in well water) sockeye salmon fry were exposed to the oligochaete Stylodrilus heringianus collected from a lake where M. arcticus infections are common in this fish. All experimental fish exhibited the infection when examined 3 –4 months after exposure. Of 23 sockeye salmon fry exposed to triactinomyxon spores collected from naturally infected S. heringianus, 21 were found to be infected with M. arcticus spores when examined after 3 months. Thus, the life cycle of M. arcticus involves transformation into a triactinomyxon stage in S. heringianus. Alternate development of myxosporeans in aquatic oligochaetes has been established or implicated for nine other species of myxosporeans belonging to three families, but this is the first report of alternate development in a lumbriculid worm.
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