Parasitism of Anisakid Nematodes and Chondracanthid Copepod in Hagfish
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Luo, Hao-Yuan
Abstract
Hagfishes are the most primitive vertebrates known. They have a cartilaginous skull but no vertebral column. Hagfish is marine benthic scavenger which feed on dead organic matter, including teleosts, cetaceans, marine inverts, etc. Anisakis is transferred by host predation, and their paratenic hosts include crustaceans, cephalopods, and teleost fish. The aim of this study is to investigate the parasitical fauna of hagfish and confirm that hagfish can be infected by Anisakis via host scavenging. Hagfishes were caught from Daxi fishery harbor in northeastern Taiwanese waters from November 2013 to June 2014. A total of 265 samples were examined and four species of the genus Eptatretus, Eptatretus burgeri, E. yangi, E. sheni and E. taiwanae. These four species of hagfishes were infected by Anisakidae nematodes, which parasitized mainly in the gastrointestinal tract wall. Also, anisakid nematodes species were identified by PCR-RFLP. Seven species of nematodes were recorded: Anisakis pegreffii, A. simplex s.s., recombinant genotype of A. pegreffii and A. simplex s.s., A.typica, Anisakis sp., A. brevispiculata and Hysterothylacium amoyense. All Anisakid nematodes are new host records, and two of them (Anisakis sp. and H. amoyense) are new locality records. In addition, a new species of chondracanthid copepod, Acanthochondria eptatreti, was identified and isolated from the pharynx of hagfish, and has been published in 2014. The results proved that anisakid nematodes can transfer by hagfish scavenging and modified Anisakis life cycle. Statistical analysis showed that the prevalences of two kinds of parasites (nematode and copepod) are significant higher in E. burgeri. The intensity of nematodes positively correlated with host size of E. burgeri and E. sheni. The intensity of copepod only has positive correlation with E. burgeri. The accumulation of parasites in larger hosts can be observed in this study.
Subjects
Hagfish
scavenger
Anisakis
copepod parasite
Acanthochondria eptatreti
SDGs
Type
thesis
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