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This is the first report on the susceptibility of salmonid fishes to infection with the glochidia of the freshwater mussel Margaritifera margaritifera using known numbers of parasites under controlled conditions. The relative susceptibility of six species of salmonid fish, 20 to 80 mm in total length, to glochidiosis was determined by exposing fish individually to different numbers of parasites and plotting mortalities against these exposure levels at 70 days postexposure and also against the numbers of parasites recovered from fish 48 hr postinfection. The 70-day interpolated LE50 values (exposure concentrations of glochidia that killed 50% of the fish) for kokanee salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka kennerlyi), cutthroat trout (Salmo clarki), Atlantic salmon (S. salar), steelhead trout (S. gairdneri) and coho salmon (O. kisutch) were 17,500, 29,000, 35,000, 57,000, and 105,000, respectively. Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) was the most susceptible species. The LE50 values could not be estimated even at the lowest exposure levels because mortalities were too high. On the basis of the LE50 value, coho salmon was the most resistant species.

Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) are more resistant than chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) to experimental infection with the glochidia of the freshwater mussel Margaritifera margaritifera. Histological sections of gills from coho salmon 16 hr postinfection (p.i.) showed that parasite encystment either did not occur or had progressed incompletely, which accounted for the loss of many glochidia from the gills. The remaining encysted glochidia were sloughed within 2 days (p.i.) by a well-developed hyperplasia. On chinook salmon, the parasites developed normally with no sloughing or hyperplasia. Analysis of blood samples taken from coho salmon at intervals during the infection showed significant increases in hematocrit, hemoglobin, the mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and leukocyte numbers when compared with control fish. In infected chinook salmon only the hematocrit, erythrocyte numbers, and MCV increased while the MCHC decreased. Total plasma protein increased in coho salmon but decreased in chinook salmon during infection. Glochidial antibodies were demonstrated in the blood plasma of coho and chinook salmon 8 to 12 wk p.i. Fewer glochidia attached to the excised gills of coho salmon than to the gills of chinook salmon. Also, the in vitro survival time of parasites in mucus and plasma from coho salmon was less than in the same chinook salmon fluids.

No abstract

Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) are more resistant to experimental infection with the glochidia of the freshwater mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) than are chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Histological sections made at intervals during the infection showed that coho salmon sloughed the parasites from their gills by 4.5 days postinfection, but the parasites remained encysted in the gills of chinook salmon for 12 weeks, when metamorphosis to juvenile mussels was complete. Coho salmon sloughed the parasites by a well-developed hyperplasia. No such pronounced hyperplastic reaction was seen in the gills of chinook salmon.