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Effects of the brain parasite Myxobolus arcticus on sockeye salmon
Author(s) -
Moles A.,
Heifetz J.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1998.tb01559.x
Subject(s) - myxobolus , biology , parasite hosting , fish measurement , parasitism , zoology , myxozoa , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , ecology , host (biology) , gill , world wide web , computer science
Parasitism with Myxobolus arcticus did not affect smolt size of sockeye salmon or their osmocompetence, but had a deleterious effect ( P <0.001) on the swimming speed of naturally infected smolts. Parasitized fish had a mean swimming speed of 2.89 fork length s −1 (L F s −1 ) compared with 4.37 L F s −1 for unparasitized fish. The parasite probably impairs swimming ability by affecting the central nervous system, but this effect does not appear severe enough to limit the parasite's usefulness in stock separation.