Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:51:29.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Associations and interactions among intestinal helminths of the brown trout, Salmo trutta, in northern Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2024

B.S. Dezfuli ,
L. Giari ,
S. De Biaggi  and
R. Poulin
B.S. Dezfuli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Ferrara, Via Borsari 46, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
L. Giari
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Ferrara, Via Borsari 46, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
S. De Biaggi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Ferrara, Via Borsari 46, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
R. Poulin*
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
*
*Author for correspondence Fax: 643 479-7584 E-mail: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Species co-occurrences and interspecific associations between intensity of infection were studied in helminth communities of three populations of brown trout, Salmo trutta, from northern Italy. Of the eight helminth species, only four were common enough to be included in the analyses: Pomphorhynchus laevis, Acanthocephalus anguillae, Echinorhynchus truttae and Cyathocephalus truncatus. The observed frequencies of co-occurrences of the different species, based on presence/absence data, did not differ from those predicted by a null model derived from prevalence data. However, the intensity of infection (number of individuals per fish) of different helminth species were generally, but not always significantly, negatively correlated in tests of pairwise associations. Variation in fish sizes and its effect on infection levels, and whether or not two helminth species used the same or different intermediate hosts, had no influence on these findings. Of the few significant negative associations found between pairs of helminth species, none was found in more than one fish population. This suggests that interspecific associations may be condition-dependent: even in apparently similar localities, the same combinations of helminth species show different associations. Without evidence of replicability, it is almost impossible to conclude to the consistent role of competition between any pair of helminth species in the field.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 331 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

References

Bates, R.M. & Kennedy, C.R. (1990) Interactions between the acanthocephalans Pomphorhynchus laevis and Acanthocephalus anguillae in rainbow trout: testing an exclusion hypothesis. Parasitology 100, 435–444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, R.M. & Kennedy, C.R. (1991) Potential interactions between Acanthocephalus anguillae and Pomphorhynchus laevis in their natural hosts chub, Leuciscus cephalus and the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. Parasitology 102, 289–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, A.F. (1986) Evidence for density-dependent establishment and survival of Pomphorhynchus laevis (Müller, 1776) (Acanthocephala) in laboratory-infected Salmo gairdneri Richardson and its bearing on wild populations in Leuciscus cephalus (L.). Journal of Fish Biology 28, 659–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, A.O. & Holmes, J.C. (1986) Intestinal helminths of lesser scaup ducks: an interactive community. Canadian Journal of Zoology 64, 142–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, A.O., Heard, R.W. & Overstreet, R.M. (1993) Intermediate hosts as source communities. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71, 1358–1363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, J.P. & Dick, T.A. (2000) Helminth communities of yellow perch (Perca flavescens (Mitchill): determinants of pattern. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78, 538–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dezfuli, B.S. & Scholz, T. (1995) Cyathocephalus truncatus (Cestoda: Spathebothridea) in its intermediate host Echinogammarus stammeri (Amphipoda) from the River Brenta, northern Italy. Parassitologia 37, 59–62.Google ScholarPubMed
Dezfuli, B.S., Rossetti, E., Fano, E.A. & Rossi, R. (1994) Occurrence of larval Acanthocephalus anguillae (Acanthocephala) in Asellus aquaticus (Crustacea: Isopoda) from the River Brenta. Bollettino di Zoologia 61, 77–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dezfuli, B.S., Rossetti, E., Bellettato, C.M. & Maynard, B.J. (1999) Pomphorhynchus laevis in its intermediate host Echinogammarus stammeri in the River Brenta, Italy. Journal of Helminthology 73, 95–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dezfuli, B.S., Giari, L. & Poulin, R. (2000) Species associations among larval helminths in an amphipod intermediate host. International Journal for Parasitology 30, 1143–1146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobson, A.P. (1985) The population dynamics of competition between parasites. Parasitology 91, 317–347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, R.D., Pung, O.J. & Richardson, D.J. (1999) Site selection by intestinal helminths of the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Journal of Parasitology 85, 1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guégan, J.-F., Hugueny, B. (1994) A nested parasite species subset pattern in tropical fish: host as major determinant of parasite infracommunity structure. Oecologia 100, 184–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haukisalmi, V. & Henttonen, H. (1998) Analysing interspecific associations in parasites: alternative methods and effects of sampling heterogeneity. Oecologia 116, 565–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J.C. (1961) Effects of concurrent infections on Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) and Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala). I. General effects and comparison with crowding. Journal of Parasitology 47, 209–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Janovy, J., Clopton, R.E. Jr., Clopton, D.A., Snyder, S.D., Efting, A., Krebs, L. (1995) Species density distributions as null models for ecologically significant interactions of parasite species in an assemblage. Ecological Modelling 77, 189–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C.R. (1978) An analysis of the metazoan parasitocoenoses of brown trout Salmo trutta from British lakes. Journal of Fish Biology 13, 255–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C.R. & Hartvigsen, R.A. (2000) Richness and diversity of intestinal metazoan communities in brown trout Salmo trutta compared to those of eels Anguilla anguilla in their European heartlands. Parasitology 121, 55–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C.R. & Moriarty, C. (1987) Co-existence of congeneric species of Acanthocephala: Acanthocephalus lucii and A. anguillae in eels Anguilla anguilla in Ireland. Parasitology 95, 301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafferty, K.D., Thomas, F. & Poulin, R. (2000) Evolution of host phenotype manipulation by parasites and its consequences. pp. 117–127 in Poulin, R., Morand, S., Skorping, A. (Eds) Evolutionary biology of host-parasite relationships: theory meets reality. Amsterdam, Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Lotz, J.M. & Font, W.F. (1994) Excess positive associations in communities of intestinal helminths of bats: a refined null hypothesis and a test of the facilitation hypothesis. Journal of Parasitology 80, 398–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lotz, J.M., Bush, A.O. & Font, W.F. (1995) Recruitment-driven, spatially discontinuous communities: a null model for transferred patterns in target communities of intestinal helminths. Journal of Parasitology 81, 12–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrick, M.J. (1991) Distribution of enteric helminths in Glaucomys volans L. (Sciuridae): a test for competition. Ecology 72, 755–758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R. (1998E) Evolutionary ecology of parasites: from individuals to communities. London, Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Poulin, R. (2000) Variation in the intraspecific relationship between fish length and intensity of parasitic infection: biological and statistical causes. Journal of Fish Biology 56, 123–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R. (2001) Interactions between species and the structure of helminth communities. Parasitology (in press in Suppl. to Vol. 122).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, J.D. (1964) Studies on populations of helminth parasites in brown trout (Salmo trutta L.).. Journal of Animal Ecology 33, 83–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, J.D. (1980) Implications of different sorts of evidence for competition. American Naturalist 116, 719–726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidal-Martinez, V.M. & Kennedy, C.R. (2000) Potential interactions between the intestinal helminths of the cichlid fish Cichlasoma synspilum from southeastern Mexico. Journal of Parasitology 86, 691–695.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed