Parasite load of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua in the Baltic Sea assessed by the liver category method, and associations with infection density and critical condition
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
During the 2010s, Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. in the eastern Baltic Sea experienced increasing infection loads of the parasitic nematode Contracaecum osculatum (Rudolphi) in their livers. Starting in 2021, a mandatory part of the routine sampling protocol on Baltic monitoring surveys is to assign a liver category to individual cod livers, based on the number of nematodes visible on the liver surface, to follow spatiotemporal changes in nematode infection loads. The validity of the liver category method has never been evaluated. Based on data from 642 cod livers, the method was verified and found to be a good predictor of the total number of nematodes. Moreover, the probability of cod being in a critical condition increased with the parasite load. In addition to their direct applicability to Baltic cod, the present findings may inspire others working with disease in fish stocks to include parasite monitoring.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Fisheries Management and Ecology |
| Vol/bind | 29 |
| Udgave nummer | 1 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 88-99 |
| ISSN | 0969-997X |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2022 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and The Danish Fisheries Agency (33113‐B‐16‐070, 33113‐B‐16‐071 and 33113‐B‐17‐110), and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 773713 (PANDORA) and by Director J.P.A. Espersen and Mrs. Dagny Espersen Foundation. Collections on board RV ALKOR were conducted during the course of the BONUS BIO‐C3 project and were supported by BONUS (Art 185), funded jointly by the EU and the German BMBF under grant No. 03F0682. The German sampling was partly co‐funded by the European Commission’s Data Collection Framework. We thank the scientific, technical and permanent staff of all research and commercial vessels that have contributed to the collection of samples for this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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