The role of copepods (Cyclopsspp.) in eliminating the actinospore stages of fish-parasitic myxozoans

Rácz, Orsolya and Székely, Cs. and Molnár, K. (2006) The role of copepods (Cyclopsspp.) in eliminating the actinospore stages of fish-parasitic myxozoans. Acta Veterinaria Hungarica, 54 (1). pp. 61-70. ISSN 0236-6290

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Abstract

The actinospore consumption of copepods (Cyclopsspp.)was demonstrated by laboratory observations. It was observed that in experimental dishes the number of actinospores floating in the water decreased, or such actinospores were completely eliminated, in the presence of copepods. The ingestion of actinospores by copepods and their further fate were monitored by fluorescent staining and by conventional histological techniques. The actinospores were observed to have got caught on the filters of Cyclopsspp. Two and a half hours after the copepods had been placed into water containing actinospores, their digestive tract was found to contain spores that had extruded their filaments from the polar capsules. After copepods having ingested the actinospores of the species Myxobolus pseudodisparhad been fed to roaches, no muscle infection developed in the fish host. It is likely that Cyclopsspp. can filter out actinospores floating in the water also from natural waters, thus decreasing the chance of development of myxosporean infections.

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