Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T19:49:41.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of Eubothrium salvelini (Cestoda) on the behaviour of Cyclops vernalis (Copepoda) and its susceptibility to fish predators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

R. Poulin ,
M. A. Curtis  and
M. E. Rau
R. Poulin
Affiliation:
Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, P.O. Box 8888, Station A, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada
M. A. Curtis
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Macdonald College of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 1C0, Canada
M. E. Rau
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Macdonald College of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 1C0, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

To facilitate the completion of their life-cycle, many helminth parasites have evolved the ability to manipulate the behaviour of their intermediate host in order to make it more likely to be eaten by the parasite's definitive host. Here, we determined whether the cestode Eubothrium salvelini modifies the behaviour of its intermediate host, the copepod Cyclops vernalis, and makes it more susceptible to predation by brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, the parasite's final host. Following the experimental infection of copepods, the spontaneous activity of infected and control subjects was quantified weekly. In addition, we regularly quantified predation by individual brook trout fry on known numbers of infected and control copepods. At approximately the time when the cestode larvae became infective to fish (2–3 weeks following infection), the infected copepods started to swim more actively than uninfected controls. Also at that time, infected individuals became more likely to be captured by fish than uninfected ones. Copepod size and intensity of infection had no significant effect on their behaviour or their risk of being eaten by fish. Thus cestode- induced changes in copepod swimming activity can lead to infected copepods becoming highly vulnerable to fish predators, and may have resulted from selection on the parasite to increase its transmission success

Keywords

Eubothrium salveliniCyclops vernalisSalvelinus fontinalisbehavioural changespredation risk
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 105 , Issue 2 , October 1992 , pp. 265 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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

Albert, E. & Curtis, M. A. (1991). Prevalence and abundance of helminth parasites in an intensively fished population of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) at a small subarctic lake. Canadian Journal of Zoology 69, 691–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amat, F., Gozalbo, A., Navarro, J. C., Hontoria, F. & Varo, I. (1991). Some aspects of Artemia biology affected by cestode parasitism. Hydrobiologia 212, 39–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bethel, W. M. & Holmes, J. C. (1974). Correlation of development of altered evasive behaviour in Gammarus lacustris (Amphipoda) harboring cystacanths of Polymorphus paradoxus (Acanthocephala) with infectivity to the definitive host. Journal of Parasitology 60, 272–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, N. P. J. (1974). Biology of Eubothrium salvelini (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea), a parasite of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) of Babine Lake, British Columbia. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 31, 1735–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, N. P. J. (1979). Effects of Eubothrium salvelini (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea) on the growth and vitality of sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka. Canadian Journal of Zoology 57, 597–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, N. P. J. & Clarke, W. C. (1983). Eubothrium salvelini (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea) impairs seawater adaptation of migrant sockeye salmon yearlings (Oncorhynchus nerka) from Babine Lake, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 40, 821–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, N. P. J. & Yamada, S. B. (1977). Effects of a parasite, Eubothrium salvelini (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea), on the resistance of juvenile sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, to zinc. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 34, 706–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bristow, G. A. & Berland, B. (1991). The effect of long term, low level Eubothrium sp.(Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea) infection on growth in farmed salmon (Salmo salar L.). Aquaculture 98, 325–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, J. L. & Dodson, S. I. (1965). Predation, body size, and composition of the plankton. Science 150, 28–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Combes, C. (1991). Ethnological aspects of parasite transmission. American Naturalist 138, 866–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, N. (1983). Behavioural effects of the parasite Schistocephalus solidus (Cestoda) on an intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L. Animal Behaviour 31, 1192–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helluy, S. & Holmes, J. C. (1990). Serotonin, octopamine, and the clinging behavior induced by the parasite Polymorphus paradoxus (Acanthocephala) in Gammarus lacustris (Crustacea). Canadian Journal of Zoology 68, 1214–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, R., Kennedy, C. R. & Meder, J. (1986). Effects of Eubothrium salvelini Schrank, 1790 on arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus (L.), in an alpine lake. Journal of Fish Diseases 9, 153–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J. C. & Bethel, W. M. (1972). Modification of intermediate host behaviour by parasites. In Behavioural Aspects of Parasite Transmission (ed. Canning, E. U. & Wright, C. A.), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 51 (Suppl. 1), 123–49.Google Scholar
Hurd, H. (1990). Physiological and behavioural interactions between parasites and invertebrate hosts. Advances in Parasitology 29, 271–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hurd, H. & Fogo, S. (1991). Changes induced by Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) in the behaviour of the intermediate host Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera). Canadian Journal of Zoology 69, 2291–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1978). The biology, specificity and habitat of the species of Eubothrium (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea), with reference to their use as biological tags: a review. Journal of Fish Biology 12, 393–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keymer, A. E. (1980). The influence of Hymenolepis diminuta on the survival and fecundity of the intermediate host, Tribolium confusum. Parasitology 81, 405–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marcogliese, D. J. & Esch, G. W. (1989). Experimental and natural infection of planktonic and benthic copepods by the Asian tapeworm, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi. Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington 56, 151–5.Google Scholar
May, R. M. & Anderson, R. M. (1979). Population biology of infectious diseases: Part II. Nature, London 280, 455–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, J. (1983). Responses of an avian predator and its isopod prey to an acanthocephalan parasite. Ecology 64, 1000–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, J. (1984). Altered behavioral responses in intermediate hosts: an acanthocephalan parasite strategy. American Naturalist 123, 572–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, J. & Gotelli, N. J. (1990). A phylogenetic perspective on the evolution of altered host behaviours: a critical look at the manipulation hypothesis. In Parasitism and Host Behaviour (ed. Barnard, C. J. & Behnke, J. M.), pp. 193–233. London: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Mueller, J. F. (1959). The laboratory propagation of Spirometra mansonoides (Mueller, 1935) as an experimental tool. II. Culture and infection of the copepod host, and harvesting the procercoid. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 78, 245–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'brien, W. J., Slade, N. A. & Vinyard, G. L. (1976). Apparent size as the determinant of prey selection by bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Ecology 57, 1304–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, R. & Dick, T. A. (1983). Development and infectivity of the procercoid of Triaenophorus crassus Forel and mortality of the first intermediate host. Canadian Journal of Zoology 61, 2120–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, H. D. (1973). Observations on the cestode Eubothrium salvelini in juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) at Babine Lake, British Columbia. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 30, 947–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R. S. & Kramer, D. L. (1987). Effects of a cestode (Schistocephalus sp.) on the response of ninespine sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius) to aquatic hypoxia. Canadian Journal of Zoology 65, 1862–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, N. H. F. & Lawler, G. H. (1965). Natural infections of cyclopid copepods with procercoids of Triaenophorus spp. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 22, 1335–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, E. E. & Hall, D. J. (1974). Optimal foraging and the size selection of prey by the bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Ecology 55, 1042–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar