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Evaluation of resistance to Dermo in eastern oyster strains tested in Chesapeake Bay
Author(s) -
Brown Bonnie L,
Butt Arthur J,
Meritt Donald,
Paynter Kennedy T
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2005.01377.x
Subject(s) - oyster , biology , chesapeake bay , crassostrea , salinity , bay , eastern oyster , ostreidae , shellfish , estuary , fishery , zoology , ecology , aquatic animal , fish <actinopterygii> , oceanography , geology
We investigated growth, Dermo disease, and survival for nine groups of oysters, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin) cultivated in Chesapeake Bay (CB). Five regional strains (upper CB, North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Louisiana (LA) and LA triploids) and four additional hybrid strains (CB oysters mated with NC, SC, LA and Texas (TX) oysters) were held in floating rafts at three locations representative of lower CB: ‘low’ salinity (3–14 g L −1 ), ‘moderate’ salinity (5–20 g L −1 ) and ‘high’ salinity (14–24 g L −1 ). At each site, patterns of growth and incidence of infection with Perkinsus marinus (Levine), the causative agent of Dermo disease, were similar. However, mortality trends were markedly different at each site; the CB strain being notable for accelerated mortality following infection with P. marinus . In addition, hybrids between CB and all four of the regional strains exhibited similar accelerated mortality in response to infection. Mortality was strongly correlated with infection only at the high salinity site implicating interaction of differences in both oyster strain and virulence of Dermo between moderate and high salinity areas as factors in differential mortality across sites.