Premium
True Intermediate Hosts for Eimeria funduli (Apicomplexa) from Estuarine Fishes 1
Author(s) -
FOURNIE JOHN W.,
OVERSTREET ROBIN M.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
the journal of protozoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.067
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1550-7408
pISSN - 0022-3921
DOI - 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1983.tb05342.x
Subject(s) - biology , hepatopancreas , shrimp , crustacean , gill , broodstock , eimeria , zoology , cephalothorax , anatomy , fishery , ecology , microbiology and biotechnology , fish <actinopterygii> , aquaculture
Grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio) fed liver containing sporulated oocysts of Eimeria funduli permitted development of sporozoites that became infective to a variety of killifishes. The shrimp's gastric mill mechanically ruptured the oocysts. Sporozoites then excysted through an opening in the sporocyst, and by 12 and 13 h postinfection (p.i.) numerous empty sporocysts and free sporozoites occurred extracellularly in the intestine of the grass shrimp. Even at 5, 7, 8, 11, 46, 79, and 83 days p.i., and presumably for many months, numerous sporozoites still occurred free in the alimentary tract or between intestinal cells. The coccidium did not infect killifish at either 2 or 4 days p.i., but did at 5 days; after release from the sporocyst, it became more elongate with a distinct nucleus and two relatively large refractile bodies. Infections of E. funduli resulted in about one half of the fish that were fed either entire hepatopancreas or tips of hepatopancreas from experimentally infected shrimp. Feeding either the entire alimentary tract proximal to the first abdominal segment or any portion of that section from experimentally infected shrimp produced infections in nearly all tested fish. Feeding portions of the cephalothorax without any attached hepatopancreas or alimentary tract failed to produce an infection. Feeding killifish with wild grass shrimp from an enzootic area produced infections in only a fourth of the fish sample; however, feeding experimentally infected wild, laboratory‐reared, and juvenile grass shrimp produced infections in nearly all fish. Palaemonid shrimps other than P. pugio also can serve as intermediate hosts for E. funduli , and these shrimps include Palaemonetes vulgaris, P. paludosus, P. kadiakensis , and Macrobrachium ohione . In contrast, a penaeid shrimp, mysidacean, amphipod, and crab fed liver with sporulated oocysts did not produce infections when fed to killifish.