Possible Effects of Black-Spot Disease on Northern Pike
- 1 January 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
- Vol. 111 (1) , 106-109
- https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1982)111<106:peobdo>2.0.co;2
Abstract
Twenty‐two percent of 623 Niagara River northern pike Esox lucius we examined had black‐spot disease. An attempt to identify the causative digenic trematode was unsuccessful. Infected fish were smaller than uninfected fish at ages 1, 2, 3, and 4 years, and the size differential increased with age. Incidence of infection decreased as fish age (and length) increased so that no fish older than 4+ years (or longer than 600 mm total length) had black‐spot disease. The proportion of diseased fish recaptured after several months at large was less than that for uninfected fish, but sample size was small. These data suggest that black‐spot infection is related to retarded growth and increased mortality, but cause and effect are unclear.Keywords
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