Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T18:32:41.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The importance of parasite mortality in regulating the population size of the Acanthocephalan Pomphorhynchus laevis in goldfish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

C. R. Kennedy
C. R. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, The University, Exeter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Experiments to study the mortality rate of the acanthocephalan Pomphorhynchus laevis in goldfish are described. Infections with different population densities of parasite were given to fish on one occasion only and on several occasions with different time intervals between infection.

The parasites established and grew in the experimental hosts at rates comparable to those in natural hosts on all occasions. The proportion establishing did not decrease with increasing population size and bore no relationship to the presence of an existing infection. The greatest loss of parasites occurred during the period of establishment. Thereafter, mortality was gradual, and the proportion of the population lost was not related to either the density of infection or to the intervals between infections. No evidence of reduced growth rate was found at the higher population densities.

It is concluded that parasite mortality does not function as a feedback control and so is relatively unimportant in regulating the population size of fish acanthocephalans. Both field and laboratory evidence indicate that this is controlled by factors influencing recruitment. The equation of mortality and recruitment rates observed in many field populations must therefore be a matter of chance, and the implications of this with respect to the stability of fish-acanthocephalan systems is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , February 1974 , pp. 93 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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

Awachie, J. B. E. (1965). The ecology of Echinorhynchus truttae Schrank, 1788 (Acanthocephala) in a trout stream in North Wales. Parasitology 55, 747–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awachie, J. B. E. (1966). The development and life history of Echinorhynchus truttae Schrank, 1788 (Acanthocephala). Journal of Helminthology 40, 11–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bibby, M. C. (1972). Population biology of the helminth parasites of Phoxinus phoxinus (L), the minnow, in a Cardiganshire Lake. Journal of Fish Biology 4, 289–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chubb, J. C. (1964). Occurrence of Echinorhynchus clavula (Dujardin, 1845) nee Haman,1892 (Acanthocephala) in the fish of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) Merionethshire. Journal of Parasitology 50, 52–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J. E. (1972). The immune response of a cyprinid fish to infections of the acanthocephalan Pomphorhynchus laevis. International Journal of Parasitology 2, 459–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hine, P. M. (1970). Studies on the parasites of some freshwater fish. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Exeter.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1970). The population biology of helminths of British freshwater fish. In Aspects of Fish Parasitology, Symposia of the British Society for Parasitology 8, 145–59.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1972). The effects of temperature and other factors upon the establishment and survival of Pomphorhynchus laevis (Acanthocephala) in goldfish, Carassius auratus. Parasitology 65, 283–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Michel, J. F. (1970). The regulation of populations of Ostertagia ostertagi in calves. Parasitology 61, 435–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pennycuick, L. (1971 a). Quantitative effects of three species of parasites on a population of three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus L. Journal of Zoology, London 165, 143–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennycuick, L. (1971 b). Frequency distribution of parasites in a population of three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., of different sex, age and size with particular reference to the negative binomial. Parasitology 63, 389–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tedla, S. & Fernando, C. H. (1969). Observations on the seasonal changes of the parasite fauna of the yellow perch (Perca flavescens) from the bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 26, 833–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tedla, S. & Fernando, C. H. (1970). Some remarks on the ecology of Echinorhynchus salmonis Muller 1784. Canadian Journal of Zoology 48, 317–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walkey, M. (1967). The ecology of Neoechinorhynchus rutili (Muller). Journal of Parasitology 53, 795–804.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed