Range expansion and molecular confirmation of the Asian fish tapeworm in the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River with notes on infections in baitfish

The Asian fish tapeworm Schyzocotyle acheilognathi is widespread in baitfish retail stores in Michigan, USA

“…After invading North America in 1975 [ 10 ], it took a quarter century and 600 miles of distance for S. acheilognathi to be detected in the Great Lakes basin, where it was found in a single fathead minnow specimen from Peter Lake near the Wisconsin-Michigan border in 2001 [ 11 ]. Since this initial report, S. acheilognathi has expanded to several other sites in the Great Lakes basin, where it has been found to infect emerald shiners, spottail shiners, mimic shiners [ Notropis volucellus (Cope, 1865)], sand shiners, bluntnose minnows [ Pimephales notatus (Rafinesque, 1820)] and common shiners [ Luxilus cornutus (Mitchill, 1817)] [ 12 , 16 , 28 ]. This study is the most comprehensive study performed that inspects baitfish retail stores in North America in terms of the number of vendors, lots, and individual fish sampled and examined for the presence of S. acheilognathi .…”

“…Emerald shiners had the highest prevalence of S. acheilognathi in our study, which coincides with the findings of Muzzall et al [ 12 ] in wild emerald shiners collected from the southeastern region of Michigan. Macrogliese et al [ 16 ] also observed S. acheilognathi prevalence to be the highest in emerald shiners collected from the wild and from six retail baitfish stores. Notably, the sum of these studies points to the emerald shiner as a suitable host to target in future S. acheilognathi surveillance studies.…”

“…Cyprinid fish species are particularly susceptible to S. acheilognathi parasitism, and there are increasing concerns that small freshwater cyprinids are contributing to the rapid expansion of S. acheilognathi in North America due to their extensive use in the baitfish trade. In this context, studies of Muzzall et al [ 12 ] and Macrogliese et al [ 16 ] demonstrated that several of the Great Lakes wild cyprinid species commonly used as baitfish harbor S. acheilognathi , which led the authors to conclude that the live baitfish trade may constitute a key pathway by which the parasite can increase its geographical range not only in the Great Lakes, but also to inland lakes, other waterways, and potentially to aquaculture facilities. In samples collected from six baitfish retail stores in Canada, Macrogliese et al [ 16 ] detected S. acheilognathi , illustrating the broad spatial scope of this harmful non-native parasite.…”

Update on the distribution of the co-invasiveSchyzocotyle acheilognathi(=Bothriocephalus acheilognathi), the Asian fish tapeworm, in freshwater fishes of Mexico

“…(2016) and Marcogliese et al . (2016). Mexico is recognized as a mega-diverse country and fish are the vertebrates with the highest species richness, with c .…”

“…Likewise, in North America, the Asian fish tapeworm has been found at least in 17 states of the USA, and in four provinces of Canada, i.e. British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and, more recently, Quebec (Choudhury et al ., 2006; Choudhury & Cole, 2012; Marcogliese et al ., 2016).…”