Control of the Trematode Bolbophorus confusus in Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus Ponds Using Salinity Manipulation and Polyculture with Black Carp Mylopharyngodon piceus

This study evaluated the use of black carp Mylopharyngodon piceus and salinity manipulation for controlling the infection of channel catfish Ictalurus puncratus by a digenetic trematode (tentatively identified as Bolbophorus confusus ). Control methods focussed mainly on the eradication of the intermediate snail host, the marsh rams‐horn Phanorbella trivolvis (previously referred to as Helisoma trivolvis ), and were evaluated in laboratory tests and field experiments at a commercial catfish culture facility in southern Louisiana that was seriously impacted by the trematode. Introduction of fingerling black carp into catfish ponds at a density of 62 carpha resulted in an almost total elimination of P. trivolvis . The farm is now successfully using a facility‐wide stocking rate of 40 carp/ha. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of salinity manipulation using NaCl on free‐swimming trematode cercariae, the snail P. trivolvis , and catfish fingerlings infected with the cercariae. A salinity of 2.5 ppt had a detrimental effect on snail survival, growth, and reproduction. Salinity did not have a negative effect on the other two aspects of the trematode life cycle tested (in fact, survival of both cercariae and infected catfish fingerlings showed a positive dependence on NaCl over the 0–2.5 ppt range). A field‐experiment was then conducted in catfish ponds maintained at three salinities (2.5, 1.25, and 0.25 ppt) with rock salt, NaCl. Snail densities in ponds at 2.5 ppt salinity were consistently lower than in the other treatments and no trematode infection was noted among snails or catfish in the 2.5 ppt salinity ponds. Both the use of 2.5 ppt NaCl and black carp appear valuable management tools for controlling the digenetic trematode in caffish ponds.