Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T19:22:30.029Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A method for estimating possible parasite-related host mortality, illustrated using data from Callitetrarhynchus gracilis (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha) in lizardfish (Saurida spp.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

E. L. Adjei
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia4067
A. Barnes
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia4067
R. J. G. Lester
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia4067

Summary

The frequency distribution of parasites in hosts commonly follows a negative binomial or similar distribution. Under certain conditions the magnitude of parasite-associated host mortality can be estimated by comparing the tail of the observed distribution to that of the distribution predicted from the first few points of the data. For the technique to work the following assumptions need to be met: mortality in lightly infected fish must be rare; infection and consequent mortality occur only in fish younger than those sampled; and the frequency distribution of the parasite at the time of infection should conform to a known probability distribution. The method was applied to frequency distributions of blastocysts of Callitetra rhynchus gracilis in 898 Saurida tumbil (Bloch) and 5013 S. undosquamis (Richardson). Parasite-associated mortality in S. tumbil was calculated to be at least 11 % in males and 2% in females. For S. undosquamis, estimated mortality was about 5% in males and 3% in females. The numbers of parasites estimated to produce a 0·5 probability of death, the parasitological equivalent of an LD50 were 3·4 and 5·7 for S. tumbil males and females, and 18 and 3 for S. undosquamis males and females respectively.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adjei, E. L. (1985). The systematics of Indo-Pacific Saurida and Trachinocepalus (Pisces: Synodon tidae) and the biology of four local species. Ph.D. thesis, University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Anderson, R. M. & Gordon, D. M. (1982). Processes influencing the distribution of parasite numbers within host populations with special emphasis on parasite-induced host mortalities. Parasitology 85, 373–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, R. M. & May, R. M. (1981). Population dynamics of microparasites and their invertebrate hosts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B 291, 451524.Google Scholar
Baker, R. J. & Nelder, J. A. (1978) Generalised Linear Interactive Modelling. Oxford: NAG Central Office.Google Scholar
Crofton, H. (1971). A quantitative approach to parasitism. Parasitology 62, 179–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobson, C. & Owen, M. E. (1978). Effect of host sex on passive in mice infected wit. Nematospiroides dubiu International Journal for Parasitology 8, 359–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, A. M. & Russert, L. R. (1949). Some condition characteristics of a yellow perch population heavily parasitized by Cliiwstomum marginal urn. Journal of Parasitology 35, 183–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esch, G. W. (1977). Regulation of Parasite Populations. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Finney, D. J. (1971). Probit Analysis, 3rd Edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. A. (1941). The negative binomial distribution. Annals of Eugenics, London 11, 182–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrester, D. J. (1971). Heligmosomoides polygyrus (= Neniatospzrozdes dubius) from wild rodents of northern California: natural infections, host specificity, and strain characteristics. Journal of Parasitology 57, 498503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, G. H. (1980). Fitting two-parameter discrete distributions to many data sets with one common parameter. Applied Statistics 29, 259–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, D. M. & Rau, M. R. (1982). Possible evidence for mortality induced by the parasite Ap&enzon gracilis in a population of brook sticklebacks (Culaea inconstans). Parasitology 84, 41–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hine, P. M. & Kennedy, C. R. (1974). The population biology of the acanthocephalan Pomphorhynchus iaevis (Müuller) in the River Avon. Journal of Fish Biology 6, 665–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J. C. (1982). Impact of infectious disease agents on the population growth and geographical distribution of animals. In Population Biology of Infectious Disease Agents (ed. Anderson, R. M. and May, R. M.), pp. 314. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Hunter, G. C. & Leigh, L. C. (1961). Studies on the resistance of rats to the nematode Nippo strongylus muris (Yokogawa, 1920). I. Dosage–mortality relationship. Parasitology 51, 347–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lester, R. J. G. (1977). An estimate of the mortality in a population of Percafiavescens owing to the trematode Diplostomum adamsi. Canadian Journal of Zoology 55, 288–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lester, R. J. G. (1984). A review of methods for estimating mortality due to parasites in wild fish populations. Helgolander Meeresuntersuchungen 37, 5364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lubieniecki, B. (1976). Aspects of the biology of the plerocercoid of Grillotia erinaceus (van Beneden, 1858) (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha) in haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus (L.). Journal of Fish Biology 8, 431–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, K. (1975). Some aspects of the biology of the plerocercoici of Gilquinia squali Fabricius 1794 (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha). Journal of Fish Biology 7, 321–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, K. & Liversidge, J. M. (1975). Some aspects of the biology of the cercaria and metacercaria of Stephanostomum baccatum (Nicoll, 1907) Manter, 1934 (Digenea: Acanthocolpidae). Journal of Fish Biology 7, 247–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, R. M. (1983). Parasitic infections as regulators of animal populations. American Scientist 71, 3645.Google ScholarPubMed
Munro, A. L. S., Mcvicar, A. H. & Jones, R. (1983). The epidemiology of infectious disease in commercially important wild marine fish. Rapports et Proces- Verbaux des Reunions Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mere 182, 2132.Google Scholar
Nakajima, K. & Egusa, S. (1969). Studies on a new trypanorhynchan larva, Callotetrarhynchus sp., parasitic on cultured yellowtail. II. On the source and route of infection. Bulletin of the Japanese Society of Scientific Fisheries 35, 351–7. (In Japanese, English abstract.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neyman, J. (1939). On a new class of ‘contagious’ distributions applicable in entomology and bacteriology. Annals of Mathematical Statistics 10, 3557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, R. E. (1976). Laboratory and field studies on Glugea stephani (Hagenmuller), a microsporidan parasite of pleuronectid fiatfishes. Journal of Protozoology 23, 158–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ord, J. K. (1972). Families of Frequency Distributions. London: Griffin.Google Scholar
Pennycuick, L. (1971). Frequency distributions of parasites in a population of three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., with particular reference to the negative binomial distribution. Parasitology 63, 389406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrin, W. F. & Powers, J. E. (1980). Role of a nematode in natural mortality of spotted dolphins. Journal of Wildlife Management 44, 960–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quenouille, M. H. (1949). A relation between the logarithmic, Poisson and negative binomial series. Biometrics 5, 162–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ross, G. J. S. (1980). Maximum Likelihood Program. Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden. Ch. 6.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. D. (1964). A comparison between the helminth burdens of male and female brown trout, Salmo trutta L. from a natural population in the River Teify, West Wales. Parasitology 54, 263–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C. B. (1964). Patterns in the Balance of Nature. London: John Wiley.Google Scholar