Abstract
Anadromous river herring have declined in many parts of their range, leading to fisheries management efforts to help repopulate this species by improving connectivity of rivers and restoring populations by fish transfers. With data lacking on parasites in these species, this study sought to better understand myxozoans across various life stages and habitats in river herring populations in New Jersey, USA. We compared fish from riverine habitats during early-life growth and adults returning to spawn, marine-phase fish, and landlocked Alewife populations. Three myxozoan species were identified in young-of-the-year (YOY) anadromous river herring, including Kudoa clupeidae in the skeletal musculature, Myxobolus mauriensis in the rib cartilage, and an uncharacterized coelozoic myxozoan within the lumen of mesonephric tubules. In YOY river herring, Blueback Herring were 2 times more likely to be infected by K. clupeidae than Alewife (p = 0.019) and in the Maurice River, fish were 4 times more likely to be infected with M. mauriensis than fish from Great Egg Harbor River (p = 0.000) and 11 times more likely than the Delaware River (p = 0.001). Spawning adult river herring were infected with a previously undescribed myxozoan parasite infecting the kidney. Sequencing the 18S rDNA indicated this species is closely related to Ortholinea species. Myxobolus mauriensis and the Ortholinea-like species were absent from marine-phase river herring indicating that infections were linked to river environments occurring during early-life growth and spawning, respectively. No myxozoans were present in landlocked Alewife, showing that similar infections occurring in rivers were absent in lake environments in the region.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Bureau of Marine Fisheries: Brian Neilan, Heather Corbett, Hugh Carberry, Gregory Hinks and the Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries: Chris Smith, Ross Shramko as well as Josette Hutcheson in the Office of Fish and Wildlife Health and Forensics for their assistance in collecting fish for this project. We would also like to thank Lana Castellano from the Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory, New Jersey Department of Agriculture for her assistance with sample processing.
Funding
This project was funded by the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act, Project FW-69-R-18 and FW-69-R-19, and the New Jersey Hunters and Anglers Fund.
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S.E. Friend, sample processing and preparing the manuscript; N.L. Lewis, statistical analyses and preparing the manuscript; J. Lovy, data analysis, overseeing the study, and manuscript preparation. S.E. Friend and N.L. Lewis had equal contributions to this work.
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Friend, S.E., Lewis, N.L. & Lovy, J. Myxozoan parasites vary in river herring according to life history stage and habitat. Parasitol Res 120, 3709–3723 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07329-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07329-y