Blood Parasites of Marine Fish of Southwest Florida, including a New Haemogregarine from the Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe)

Dorothy Chapman Saunders

doi:10.2307/3224570

Blood parasites of fish from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z80-110 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 58 (5) ◽

pp. 770-781 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

R. A. Khan ◽

M. Barrett ◽

J. Murphy

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Ocean ◽

Marine Fish ◽

Cold Water ◽

The Other ◽

Blood Parasites ◽

Scotian Shelf ◽

Blood Smears ◽

Water Species ◽

Cold Water Species ◽

Thin Blood Smears

Examination of thick and thin blood smears from 5013 marine fish from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean revealed 25 of 59 species to be infected with one or more of the following blood parasites: trypanosomes (27% of 3610), trypanoplasms (9% of 588), piroplasms (26% of 2584), and haemogregarines (36% of 1708). Higher prevalences of infection were observed in cold-water, benthic, sedentary fish than in warm-water, littoral, epipelagic, or midwater species. Trypanosome infections were more prevalent among fish taken off the Labrador – east Newfoundland coasts, lower in those from St. Pierre Bank, Grand Bank, and Gulf of St. Lawrence, and lowest in forms from the Scotian Shelf. Seven of nine species of hematophagous leeches harboured asexual stages of haemogregarines, whereas natural infections of trypanosomes occurred in one leech, Johanssonia arctica. Using five species of laboratory-reared leeches and laboratory-initiated infections of trypanosomes in piscine hosts, development of Trypanosoma murmanensis was observed only in J. arctica. It is suggested that the distribution of trypanosomes of marine fish is related to that of J. arctica, a cold-water species, whereas the other haematozoan infections might be attributed to those leech species that are associated with their respective piscine hosts.

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Marine Fish Haematozoa from New Brunswick and New England

Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada ◽

10.1139/f69-100 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 1075-1102 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Marshall Laird ◽

Wilbur L. Bullock

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Marine Fish ◽

Gadus Morhua ◽

New Records ◽

Present Finding ◽

Blood Parasites ◽

Passamaquoddy Bay ◽

New Hosts ◽

Western Side ◽

Viruslike Particles

Of 1142 fish (68 species) examined, 140 (21 species) yielded blood parasites. Overall incidence was much higher at St. Andrews, N.B., than at Woods Hole, Mass., as was the variety of fish harbouring haematozoa — 15 species (46.9%) in the former case, but only 4 (9.3%) in the latter.Trypanosoma rajae Laveran and Mesnil and Cryptobia bullocki Strout are new records for Canada, Haemogregarina delagei Laveran and Mesnil has not previously been reported from the western side of the Atlantic, and the present finding of an undesignated species of Haemohormidium Henry (a babesioid genus with which Babesiosoma Jakowska and Nigrelli is now synonymized) is the first from North American marine fish. New hosts and localities are listed for Haemogregarina bigemina Laveran and Mesnil, H. platessae Lebailly, H. aeglefini Henry, H. myoxocephali Fantham et al., and certain unidentified haemogregarines. Haemogregarina urophysis Fantham et al. is relegated to synonymy with H. aeglefini; and H. gadi pollachii Henry and H. pollachii Henry are discarded as nomina nuda. Myxosporidians of the genus Kudoa are reported (presumably as contaminants derived from slit muscle) in blood films from six hosts.Haemogregarina mavori n.sp., from Passamaquoddy Bay Macrozoarces americanus, averages 6.4 × 2.9 μ. Broadly oval to reniform and with a large, subterminal nucleus, it is found in erythrocytes that are shorter and broader than normal and exhibit marked nuclear displacement.Piscine erythrocytic necrosis (PEN) is a degenerative infection responsible for massive red blood cell destruction in Gadus morhua (Passamaquoddy Bay) and also found in Liparis atlanticus (Kent Island, N.B.) and Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus (Portsmouth Harbor, N.H.). A distinctive inclusion body formed in the cytoplasm of infected red cells recalls similar bodies associated with Pirhemocyton Chatton and Blanc and Toddia França. Erythrocyte nuclei disintegrate with the liberation of viruslike particles formed in vesicles within them.

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Occurrence and biogeographic significance of Heliaster (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) from the Pliocene of southwest Florida

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/s0022336000058960 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 62 (01) ◽

pp. 126-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Douglas S. Jones ◽

Roger W. Portell

Keyword(s):

Central American ◽

Eastern Pacific ◽

Whole Body ◽

Marine Fauna ◽

Western Atlantic ◽

Southwest Florida ◽

Extant Species ◽

Geologic Record ◽

Central American Isthmus

Whole body asteroid fossils are rare in the geologic record and previously unreported from the Cenozoic of Florida. However, specimens of the extant species,Heliaster microbrachiusXantus, were recently discovered in upper Pliocene deposits. This marks the first reported fossil occurrence of the monogeneric Heliasteridae, a group today confined to the eastern Pacific. This discovery provides further non-molluscan evidence of the close similarities between the Neogene marine fauna of Florida and the modern fauna of the eastern Pacific. The extinction of the heliasters in the western Atlantic is consistent with the pattern of many other marine groups in the region which suffered impoverishment following uplift of the Central American isthmus.

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