Infestation of Lernaea cyprinacea (Copepoda: Lernaeidae) in two invasive fish species in Romania, Lepomis gibbosus and Pseudorasbora parva

Abstract

In this study we analyzed comparatively the host-parasite associations between two fish host species invasive in Europe (Lepomis gibbosus and Pseudorasbora parva) and one known generalist parasite species, the copepod Lernaea cyprinacea. We used a fragment of the hypervariable region D1-D2 of the 28S rRNA to confirm that the copepod specimens collected on both host species in our study are indeed conspecific. The prevalence of infection was significantly different between the two host species in all three aquatic ecosystems. Two populations of L. gibbosus exhibited a positive correlation coefficient between the standard body length and infection intensity, while a negative correlation coefficient was observed in one population of P. parva. This is one of the few studies providing parasitological parameters of infections of Lernaea cypriancea in Lepomis gibbosus and Pseudorasbora parva.

Keywords

• non-indigenous fish
• host-parasite coevolution
• quantitative parasitology
• DNA barcoding
• molecular markers