Anguillicola crassus larvae in cormorant's prey fish in Vistula Lagoon, Poland

Abstract

The presence of A. crassus larvae in herring, stickleback, perch, ruffe, pike-perch, bream and roach regurgitated by cormorants from a large breeding colony at Katy Rybackie in Vistula Lagoon, Poland, was investigated. Larvae of nematode were detected only in ruffe, the dominant species in t h e diet of the cormorant (58 % of the weight of fish consumed). Mean intensity of infection was 1.57 larva per infected host (max. 5.0) and mean abundance was 0.52 larva per examined ruffe. On the basis of the infection rate (33.3 % ) , it was estimated that cormorants eliminated 150 tons of infected ruffe yearly.

Keywords

• anguillicola
• cormorant
• prey fish
• vistula lagoon