Waterborne Parasitic Diseases in Ocean

Diseases and Mortalities of Fishes and Other Animals in The Gulf of Mexico

“…The nematode Eustrongylides ignotus obtains considerable attention because the red worm as long as a human finger can cause human peritonitis when people eat raw second intermediate fish hosts (Overstreet 2003(Overstreet , 2013. Small fish such as the western mosquitofish and small Gulf killifish obtain infections by feeding on the oligochaete first intermediate host.…”

“…Fish such as the Atlantic croaker, Gulf killifish, and bluegill that feed on the mosquitofish can become infected, probably debilitated, and serve as indicators of habitats containing the alligator (Figure 14.48) as well as potentially producing human infections (Overstreet 2013). Isopods probably have a major influence on fish health and mortality in the Gulf, but they do not seem to cause mass fish mortalities.…”

Morphological, Molecular, and Histopathological Data for Sebekia mississippiensis Overstreet, Self, and Vliet, 1985 (Pentastomida: Sebekidae) in the American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis Daudin, and the Spotted Gar, Lepisosteus oculatus Winchell

“…Lastly, Overstreet et al (1985) and Deardorff and Overstreet (1991) speculated that human infections with S. mississippiensis may be possible on the grounds that S. mississippiensis nymphs were recovered from other mammalian hosts by Overstreet et al (1985). The idea of zoonotic infection with S. mississippiensis was further expounded on by Overstreet (2013), who noted that humans have been shown to harbor other pentastome species and thus may be susceptible to infection with S. mississippiensis. Given that nymphs belonging to the genus Sebekia have been reported in a single human case (Mairena et al, 1989), it is plausible that human infection with S. mississippiensis may be possible, but this is at present highly speculative, and great care should be taken when implicating a parasite species as a potential zoonotic agent.…”