Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T16:57:16.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An experimental study of the effects of Nosema eurytremae (Microsporida: Nosematidae) on the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Elizabeth U. Canning
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology, Imperial College, London
G. C. Higby
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology, Imperial College, London
J. P. Nicholas
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology, Imperial College, London

Summary

A microsporidian parasite, Nosema eurytremae, was fed to Lymnaea trunculata infected with Fasciola hepatica. Microsporidian infection of the snail was always light, though spores were present in all tissues, but the rediae became heavily infected in the parenchyma. The proportion of infected rediae increased with time and was especially high in ageing infections. Although rediae were only lightly infected when examined before cercarial release began, the infections became progressively heavier, so that towards the end of the life of the snails a high proportion of rediae were totally destroyed and contained no cercariae. Cercarial output was significantly depressed over a long period of active shedding by snails which had been hyperinfected with 1 × 10 6 spores and some of the liberated cercariae were themselves infected.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, R. M. (1979). Parasite pathogenicity and the depression of host population equilibria. Nature, London (in the Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arata, A. A., Chapman, H. C., Cupello, J. M., Davidson, E. W., Laird, M., Margalit, J. & Roberts, D. W. (1978). Status of biocontrol in medical entomology, Nature, London, 276, 669–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canning, E. U. (1975). The microsporidian parasites of Platyhelminthes: their morphology, development, transmission and pathogenicity. Commonwealth Institute of Helminthology Misc. Publ. No. 2, 132.Google Scholar
Canning, E. U., Lai, P. F. & Lie, K. J. (1974). Microsporidian parasites of trematode larvae from aquatic snails in West Malaysia. Journal of Protozoology 21, 1925.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colley, F. C., Lie, K. J. & Cheong, W. H. (1971). Experimental infection of mosquito larvae with Perezia helminthorum (Microsporida: Nosematidae). Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 2, 411.Google Scholar
Higby, G. C. & Canning, E. U. (1975). The effects of Nosema eurytremae (Protozoa, Microsporida) on the larval stages of Fasciola hepatica. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 69, 16.Google Scholar
Higby, G. C., Canning, E. U., Pilley, B. M. & Bush, P. J. (1979). Propagation of Nosema eurytremae (Microsporida: Nosematidae) from trematode larvae in abnormal hosts and in tissue culture. Parasitology 78, 155–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laird, M. (1979). Biological Control by Protozoa. Progress in Protozoology 5. Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of Protozoology. New York (in the Press).Google Scholar
Lie, K. J. & Basch, P. F. (1970). Occurrence of Perezeia helminthorum Canning and Basch (Microsporidia: Nosematidae) in trematode larvae of fresh water snails. Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 2, 410–11.Google Scholar
Palmieri, J. R., Cali, A. & Heckmann, R. A. (1976). Experimental biological control of the eye fluke, Diplostomum spatheceum, by a protozoan hyperparasite, Nosema strigeoideae (Protozoa, Microspcrida). Journal of Parasitology 62, 325–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilley, B. M., Canning, E. U. & Hammond, J. C. (1979). The use of a microinjection procedure for large scale production of the microsporidian Nosema eurytremae in Pieris brassicae. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 32, 355–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shigina, N. G. & Grobov, O. F. (1972). Nosema diplostomi sp. n. (Microsporidia: Nosematidae), a hyperparasite of trematodes of the genus Diplostomum. Parazitologiya (Leningrad) 6, 469–75. (In Russian.)Google Scholar
Southwood, T. R. E. (1977). Entomology and mankind. American Scientist 65, 30–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Voronin, V. N. (1974). On parasitism of microsporidians (Microsporida, Nosematidae) in parthenogenetic generations and cercariae of trematodes from freshwater molluscs. Parazitologiya (Leningrad) 8, 359–64. (In Russian.)Google Scholar