Parasite communities of Adriatic cage-reared fish

Abstract

From June 2001 to March 2002, 7 semi-offshore facilities in the Adriatic Sea rearing sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, sea bream Sparus aurata, sharpsnout bream Diplodus puntazzo and red sea bream Pagellus bogaraveo aged 1+, were monitored for the presence of protozoan and metazoan parasites. Obtained data sets of abundance and prevalence were used to evaluate the structure and dynamic of infra-and component parasite communities. In all hosts, except the red sea bream, dominant parasites were monogenean specialists, showing clear seasonality. Average infracommunity richness was very low, ranging from 1 to 3 parasites per fish, while at component community level, values ranged from 3 to 8, depending on host species. Based on low diversity indices and a moderate to high similarity coefficient between different facilities, it can be concluded that the parasitofauna of Adriatic cage-reared fish is a stable and impoverished stochastic assemblage, with monogeneans as the predominant parasitic group.

Fish growth and health aspects of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) reared in standard vs. high rate algal pond recirculation systems

“…This is in accordance with the findings of Deviller et al (2004;2005), who found no difference in liver protein level between fish reared in RAS and RAS+HRAP after a one year period, reinforcing the hypothesis of a normal liver condition.…”

“…aequans is an almost unavoidable parasite in reared sea bass populations, causing mortalities in juvenile fish; its effects are often complicated in the summer months by secondary bacterial infections (Mladineo 2004). It can be isolated throughout the year, even though its occurrence is affected by environmental factors, especially temperature (Cecchini et al 1997;Cecchini et al 2001;Mladineo 2005). While both the RAS and RAS+HRAP showed the presence of this parasite, with a significant increase in numbers after one year of experimentation, no statistical evidence was found that one system represented better conditions for parasite propagation than the other.…”

Protozoan and myxozoan infections in wild gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) from North Lake of Tunis, Tunisia

“…has been previously reported in S. aurata from France (Paperna and Baudin Laurencin 1979); several culture systems in Spain (AlvarezPellitero et al 1995); Adriatic Sea (Mladineo 2006) and different farming systems in Italy (Fioravanti et al 2006a, b). However, the taxonomic identity of the Trichodina species was not established.…”

Metazoan Parasites of the European Sea Bass Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus 1758) (Pisces: Teleostei) from Corsica

“…They are likely to establish and proliferate in aquaculture because they may reproduce rapidly (Hutson et al, 2007). The presence of parasites throughout the year may be due to close and prolonged contact between fish in the same cage (Mladineo, 2006).…”