Epizootiology, pathology, and description of Eustrongylides tubifex (Nematoda: Dioctophymatoidea) in fish

Abstract

In Guelph Lake, a man-made reservoir in Ontario, Canada, prevalence of larval Eustrongylides tubifex in pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus), rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris), and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) was 12.9% and mean intensity ranged from 1 to 1.8. Larvae were encapsulated on the mesentery of fish. Pumpkinseed and yellow perch were the important fish hosts in Guelph Lake as most larvae in these fish were alive. In contrast, 40% of larvae in rock bass were dead and calcified. Third- and fourth-stage larvae from naturally infected fish are described. Larvae in the three species of fish elicited a granulomatous inflammatory reaction. Attempts to transfer third-stage larvae from experimentally infected oligochaetes and third-stage larvae from naturally infected fish to laboratory-reared pumpkinseed were unsuccessful. Fourth-stage larvae from naturally infected fish were transferred successfully to pumpkinseed. Eutropic lakes such as Guelph Lake are particularly suitable enzootic areas because of the abundant populations of tubificid intermediate hosts and the presence of fish hosts such as pumpkinseed and perch. The advanced stage and development of larvae (to the fourth stage) in fish likely represents an adaptation for a parasite that occurs in a migratory host such as Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser), which frequent Guelph Lake for only about 1 month in spring and fall.